Expectations were high
in the fall that a second downtown branch of the Whitney Museum would finally come to fruition after a few years of limbo, amidst reports that the museum was forging ahead with plans to construct a Renzo Piano-designed building at the entrance of the High Line. Today, news comes out that it might have been presumptuous expecting a resolution had come.
According to the Times, there has been a split among the 45-member Whitney board of directors as to how exactly to use the $131 million donation given by cosmetics heir Leonard A. Lauder, the biggest donation in the museum's history. Although the majority of the board are gung-ho about the High Line building, others don't think the museum can afford to operate two sites. Lauder himself is supposedly a vocal opponent to the second site, which he views as a vanity project.
The museum currently has over 18,000 works in its collection, but can only display 150 at a time at its current home on the Upper East Side. Co-chairwoman of the board Brooke Garber Neidich said, “This isn’t just the Whitney dreaming again,” and insists the museum can afford it and plans are moving forward; but Gilbert C. Maurer, a longtime board member and former president, said: “This is like the politicians who love to build bridges but hate to paint them...it’s probably possible to build a building. The challenge is how are you going to operate it. And that’s worrisome.”
