A way out has been found regarding the new wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, scheduled to be completed in 2020 but delayed by financial problems. Investor Oscar L. Tang and his wife, Agnes Hsu-Tang, made a generous donation of $125 million to the museum, and the Met selected Mexican architect Frida Escobedo to design the wing, previously commissioned to David Chipperfield Architects.
Frida Escobedo founded her office in 2006 and was the youngest architect to design the impressive 2018 Serpentine Pavillion in London. The new wing at the Met – to be named the Oscar L. Tang and HM Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing – will be 7,400 sq.m. of exhibition space and public space and home to the museum’s collection of modern art, from the 20th and in the 21st century, as well as a collection of Cubist works donated to the Met.
“Frida Escobedo is an outstanding architect of our time,” said Met director Max Hollein in a statement. “She practices architecture as a method of creating intense experiences of space and community and has shown dexterity and sensitivity in her refined use of materials while, at the same time, drawing particular attention to socio-economic and ecological issues of today.”
“The very generous gift of the Tangs has enabled us to take this step forward”, said Daniel H.Weiss, president and CEO of the Met. “Frida Escobedo’s impressive and inspiring project portfolio and her creative engagement with our team has made us very excited about this important chapter in the Met”. In a statement to the New York Times, he estimated that the project would be completed in about seven years.
“The Tang Wing gives us the opportunity to bring new life to the museum’s 20th and 21st century art ; to celebrate the dynamics we can find in art of different eras, geographical regions and ideologies; and to discover new spaces for reflection and connection with others”, Frida Escobedo said in a statement.
