The long wait is over for the Museum for African Art, which has been homeless since its inception in 1984. Yesterday, museum and city officials announced plans for a new $80 million project to be built on Fifth Avenue at 110th Street on the city's museum mile, the first new addition to the row since 1959. The building, designed by Robert A.M. Stern, will have 16,000 square feet of exhibition space and will be topped by 115 market rate apartments. El Maestro Stern describes the challenge to design "a strong civic public identity within the larger framework of a commercial apartment house" and at the same time, to make a building that is glassy and open, but not a knee-jerk glass block." Uh, success! We especially like the distinctive "dancing mullions" that shimmer up the glass wall of the museum structure and look forward to its opening day in 2008 2009.
· Museum for African Art Finds Its Place [NYTimes]
· Musuem For African Art [Official Site]
· East Harlem: Here Comes the Neighborhood [Curbed]
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