New York’s Frick Collection Readies for April 17 Reopening
View from the 70th Street Garden looking west to the Reception Hall, the Frick Collection, New York. Photo © Nicholas Venezia
More than five years, a modest handful of delays, and one high-profile temporary address later, New York’s Frick Collection will once again welcome visitors to its home within industrialist Henry Clay Frick’s former Gilded Age mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The museum’s reopening, scheduled for April 17, marks the public debut of a comprehensive renovation and expansion project led by Selldorf Architects, joined by Beyer Blinder Belle as executive architect. Per a design statement from Selldorf, the museum-wide enhancements, which encompass 27,000 square feet of new construction and 60,000 square feet of renovated or repurposed space, promise “unprecedented access” to the landmarked 1914 building; key aims included expanding accessibility, overhauling outmoded building systems, and enhancing the Frick’s fabled existing collection galleries (alongside creating new ones) through subtle interventions that remain faithful to the historic fabric of the original buildings. And, notably, the second floor is no longer cordoned off behind velvet ropes. What used to be offices has now been restored and turned into galleries. The $330 million project is the first major upgrade to the Frick since its opening in 1935.
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New and renovated spaces at the Frick Collection include the main entrance hall (1), reception hall (2), and auditorium (3). Photos © Nicholas Venezia
“Bringing people to art is really what this is all about,” said Annabelle Selldorf at a March 25 press preview. “Visitors can do what they’ve always done: admire the architecture and marvelous art, but the experience will be a little better and a little brighter.”
In addition to creating 30 percent more gallery space across multiple floors, major components of the revamp include the creation of a purpose-built education center (a first for the institution), a 220-seat auditorium tucked beneath the museum’s 70th Street garden, a new internal link between the museum and the adjacent Frick Art Research Library, an enlarged grand reception hall complete with a dramatic marble staircase, and more. Throughout, historic architectural features have been carefully preserved. The Frick mansion’s original limestone facade was also restored.
The renovated and enhanced Frick Collection will be profiled in-depth in the forthcoming May issue of Architectural Record. Below—offering just a taste of what will greet museum guests during next month’s official reopening—is a short video showcasing the restoration of British landscape architect Russell Page’s 70th Street Garden, a tranquil staple of the Frick since 1977.
Restoration of the 70th Street Garden at the Frick Collection, New York. Video courtesy the Frick Collection
