Major $670M Construction Kicks Off At Met Museum — Here’s What’s Coming

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The Metropolitan Museum of Art broke ground Tuesday on a major new wing for modern and contemporary art, launching a four-year construction project at its Fifth Avenue campus.

The five-story, 126,000-square-foot wing will remain within the museum’s existing footprint. It will contain 69,500 square feet of exhibition space — nearly 50 percent more than the galleries in the current modern and contemporary art wing.

Designed by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo, the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing is expected to open in 2030. Escobedo is the first woman to design a wing in the museum’s 156-year history, according to The Met.

“The Met’s new wing will transform how we present 20th- and 21st-century art,” museum director and CEO Max Hollein said.

The design calls for galleries with ceiling heights ranging from 11 to 22 feet, allowing the museum to display large installations alongside smaller works. A 1,000-square-foot cafe is planned for the fifth floor.

The project will also add about 18,500 square feet of outdoor space across terraces on the fourth and fifth floors. The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden will move to an expanded, 10,000-square-foot fourth-floor terrace overlooking Central Park and the Manhattan skyline.

Escobedo’s design features a limestone architectural screen known as a celosía. The building will have a three-story base, a recessed fourth floor and a further setback fifth floor, keeping it below the height of the museum’s Fifth Avenue facade.

“The design for the Tang Wing weaves together the many architectural styles that make up The Met’s campus, honoring each building’s own history while creating a space that is distinctly of our time,” Escobedo said.

Accessibility improvements will include two elevator cores, ramps, clearer circulation routes and improved connections to neighboring wings.

The Met also says the project will reduce energy consumption through changes to the facade, window placement and mechanical systems. Landscaping around the wing will be restored in coordination with the Central Park Conservancy and the city Parks Department, with accessible paths, new lighting, lawns, trees and other plantings planned.

The museum has raised $670 million to pay for the full construction cost and a significant portion of an endowment established to operate the wing, according to The Met.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura and state Sen. Jose Serrano were among the elected officials who marked the start of construction.

Visitors will still be able to see selections from The Met’s modern and contemporary art collection elsewhere in the museum during construction. The museum said rotating installations and special exhibitions will continue until the new wing opens.

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