NEW YORK AT ITS CORE
Working with the museum’s curators from inception through final realization, the design team produced a fully integrated experience for visitors that highlights the people, events, and physical environment of New York that has made it the city it is today.
Spread across three galleries and comprising the museum’s entire ground floor, New York at Its Core comprehensively considers the city’s past four centuries and contemplates its future. A result of an iterative five-year process with a multi-disciplinary design team, the exhibition is framed around the key themes of money, density, diversity, and creativity. Stories of innovation, planning, class struggle, and the visions of generations of immigrants, politicians, tycoons, and dreamers tell the history of the city.
Custom casework in the two history galleries highlights objects from the museum’s immense collection, illustrating a rich and varied history across five boroughs. Interactive elements focus on specific people that impacted the city over time, and immersive media transports visitors to eras and places of New York’s past. The third gallery engages visitors to project a future for the City, inviting both conversations among visitors and creative expression.
Project Info
Location
New York, NY
Completion
2016
Client
Museum of the City of New York
Collaborators
Lighting Design: Clinard Design Studio
Graphic Design: Pentagram, Michael Beirut
Media Design: Local Projects
Fabricator: Southside Design and Build
Photographer
Thomas Loof
Awards
2019 Architecture Podium International Architecture Awards, Pop-up/Temporary
2018 American Institute of Architects, New York State, Citation Design Award
2018 American Alliance of Museums (AAM), Overall Excellence Award
2018 American Architecture, Chicago Athenaeum, International Awards
2017 American Institute of Architects, New York City, Design Honor Award
2017 Interior Design Magazine, Public Space, Design Award
2017 Architizer.com A+ Award, Learning and Architecture
2017 American Alliance of Museums, MUSE award