Uptown or Down? The Whitney’s Identity Crisis

When will the Whitney learn its lesson? Over the last two decades the museum has trotted out architectural proposals by Michael Graves, Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano
for an expansion of its site on Madison Avenue at 75th Street. The
designs have ranged wildly, from kitschy to audacious. All have been
dumped with little ceremony, the victims of a hostile neighborhood and
a fickle board of trustees.
But only now has the process turned truly comical. The recent admission by the Whitney Museum of American Art
that it is considering the addition of a downtown branch instead of
proceeding with its on-site expansion effectively sounds the death
knell for Mr. Piano’s project just three months after the addition won
final approval from the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals. After
years of stop-and-go plans and public soul searching, the museum is
evidently still seeking an identity.