NEW YORK, UNITED STATES.- An untitled piece by Donald Judd made of painted aluminum is on view at the Museum of Modern Art 15 November, 2004 in New York. The museum reopens to the public 20 November. The Museum of Modern Art is home to the world's largest and most inclusive collection of modern painting and sculpture, comprising some 3,200 works dating from the late nineteenth century to the present.

The exterior of the newly remodeled Museum of Modern Art is shown during a media preview in New York City. The new museum, designed by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, nearly doubles the capacity of the former building and encompasses 630,000 square feet on six floors. The new building, which cost of $425 million, opens to the public November 20.

Throughout its history, The Museum of Modern Art has used architecture as a vehicle for self-renewal and regeneration. The recently completed building project represents MoMA’s most extensive redefinition since its founding seventy-five years ago. The Museum combines new spaces with MoMA’s original architecture to dramatically enhance its dynamic collection of modern and contemporary art.

MoMA conducted an extensive worldwide search for an architect who would not simply add on to the Museum’s existing architecture, but would be able to transform MoMA’s various buildings and additions into a unified whole. Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi won the commission with a design that would, in his own words, “transform MoMA into a bold new museum while maintaining its historical, cultural, and social context.”

The 630,000-square-foot Museum has nearly twice the capacity of the former facility. The new six-story David and Peggy Rockefeller Gallery Building houses the main collection and temporary exhibition galleries. Taniguchi worked closely with curators to refine his concept into a design that would expertly accommodate the type and scale of works displayed. Spacious galleries for contemporary art are located on the second floor, with more intimately scaled galleries for the collection on the levels above. Expansive, sky-lit galleries for temporary exhibitions are located on the top floor. MoMA’s Film and Media program resumes in the two refurbished Titus Theaters, located below the lobby level.

In the expanded Museum Lobby, Taniguchi takes inspiration from the unique vitality of the streets of midtown Manhattan. This bustling interior promenade connects Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Streets and offers spectacular views of both The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and a light-filled atrium that soars 110 feet above street level. The lobby also serves as the Museum’s “information center,” with multiple ticket counters; information about membership, exhibitions, and programs; and access to the Museum’s theaters, restaurant, stores, and garden.

Masterworks of modern sculpture, seasonal plantings, and reflecting pools once again welcome visitors to the beloved Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, which Taniguchi identified as “perhaps the most distinctive single element of the Museum today.” The architect preserved Philip Johnson’s original 1953 design and re-established the garden’s southern terrace to create an elegant outdoor patio for The Modern, the Museum’s new fine-dining restaurant.

Interior work continues on MoMA’s new, eight-story Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building. When complete, it will offer five times more space for educational and research activities, including an expanded Library and Archives, a reading room, a 125-seat auditorium, workshop space for teacher training programs, study centers, and a lobby with magnificent views of the Sculpture Garden.

With his design for The Museum of Modern Art, Taniguchi has demonstrated that architectural expression and the proper environment for looking at art can be brilliantly intertwined. The result, in the architect’s own words, is “an ideal environment for art and people [created] through the imaginative and disciplined use of light, materials, and space.”