On the Bowery, a new architectural silhouette signals a decisive moment for one of New York’s most forward-thinking institutions. With the unveiling of its OMA-designed expansion, the New Museum enters a new phase—one that not only doubles its footprint, but redefines the possibilities of what a contemporary art institution can be.
Celebrated with a ribbon-cutting on March 20, 2026, the expansion marks the culmination of a $130 million capital campaign and nearly a decade of planning. Seamlessly integrated with the museum’s iconic SANAA-designed building, the seven-story addition extends both the physical and conceptual reach of the institution. As Director Lisa Phillips reflected, the project continues a pattern of growth tied to ambition: “Over the past five decades, the New Museum has grown its footprint at key moments in its history to better serve artists and the public.”
Designed by OMA partners Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, the expansion is less an appendage than a dialogue—two distinct structures working in tandem. The architects envisioned a “synergistic pair,” one that allows for both independence and exchange, creating expanded galleries and new public spaces that open the museum more fully to the city.
Expanding Space, Rethinking Experience at the New Museum
Courtesy of the New Museum, photo by Jason Keen.
Courtesy of the New Museum, photo by Jason Keen.
At its core, the expansion doubles the museum’s exhibition space, connecting three floors of galleries across both buildings and allowing for a fluid, horizontal experience of art. This increased scale arrives alongside a rethinking of circulation and access, with the introduction of an Atrium Stair and multiple new elevators that transform how visitors move through—and encounter—the museum.
The result is a building that is not only larger, but more porous, more visible, and more responsive to its audience.
“New Humans” and a Century of Speculative Futures
Courtesy of the New Museum, photo by Jason Keen.
That expanded capacity is immediately activated by the museum’s inaugural exhibition, “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” a sweeping presentation that spans the entirety of the institution. Bringing together more than 200 artists across disciplines and geographies, the exhibition traces a century of evolving ideas about humanity in the face of technological and societal change.
Rather than presenting a linear narrative, the exhibition constructs what might be described as a “diagonal history,” placing early 20th-century avant-garde figures like Constantin Brâncuși, Salvador Dalí, and Man Ray in dialogue with contemporary artists including Camille Henrot, Wangechi Mutu, Hito Steyerl, and Jamian Juliano-Villani. In doing so, it reveals recurring anxieties and aspirations—moments when new technologies fundamentally reshaped how we understand the body, labor, and consciousness.
Across the exhibition, fractured and reimagined bodies emerge in varied forms—from the surreal anatomies of Hannah Höch and Hans Bellmer to the speculative, hybrid figures of Berenice Olmedo, Anicka Yi, and Tau Lewis. Elsewhere, artists such as Cao Fei, Pierre Huyghe, and Lynn Hershman Leeson probe the entanglements of artificial intelligence, virtual environments, and machine consciousness, reflecting on how technological systems continue to reshape human identity.
Site-Specific Commissions Animate the Building
Courtesy of the New Museum, photo by Jason Keen.
This interplay between past and future extends beyond the galleries. Throughout the building, newly commissioned works activate architectural thresholds and transitional spaces. A monumental installation by Klára Hosnedlová winds through the Atrium Stair, its spine-like structure draped in textiles that evoke both ancient craft and speculative futures. As Phillips noted, the museum is “thrilled to provide a platform” for the artist’s first U.S. museum project, situating it among “many other ambitious projects enabled by the New Museum’s OMA-designed expansion.”
On the exterior, a new facade sculpture by Tschabalala Self offers a different kind of gesture—intimate, human, and distinctly urban. Depicting a couple in embrace, the work nods to what the museum describes as the architectural “kiss point” between the two buildings, transforming the structure itself into a site of connection.
A Museum as Platform: Programs, Community, and Exchange
Courtesy of the New Museum, photo by Jason Keen.
Beyond exhibitions, the expansion signals a broader evolution in how the New Museum engages with its community. New spaces for education, public programming, and interdisciplinary experimentation—including a dedicated home for NEW INC—underscore the institution’s longstanding commitment to fostering dialogue across art, technology, and society.
This ethos is further reflected in a dynamic calendar of public programs that extend the themes of New Humans into conversation, performance, and collective inquiry. From discussions on artificial intelligence and identity to workshops and screenings, the museum positions itself not only as a site for viewing art, but as a platform for thinking through the urgent questions of the present.
New Amenities, New Ways to Gather
Even the museum’s new restaurant, set to open in spring 2026, embodies this expanded vision. Designed by OMA and operated in partnership with the Oberon Group, the space is conceived as both an extension of the museum and an independent gathering place—“a freestanding box inserted into the ground floor lobby,” as Shigematsu described it, where visitors can gather, retreat, and linger.
Continuing a Legacy of Experimentation
Courtesy of the New Museum, photo by Jason Keen.
Underpinning all of these developments is a consistent throughline: the New Museum’s founding commitment to experimentation. Established in 1977 as a platform for living artists and new ideas, the institution has long positioned itself as a space where history is not merely preserved, but actively made.
With this expansion, that mission feels newly amplified. The building itself becomes a framework for possibility—an infrastructure designed not just to house art, but to provoke it, support it, and bring it into dialogue with the world outside its walls.
As the museum reopens its doors, it does so not simply as a larger institution, but as a more expansive one in every sense: architecturally, programmatically, and imaginatively.
