The Guggenheim Museum has expressed interest in building a Frank Gehry-designed outpost on Manhattan’s far West Side as part of the redevelopment that would include a new Jets stadium and an expanded Javits Center, sources told The Post.
Guggenheim director Thomas Krenz has discussed the museum idea with city and state officials, according to three sources familiar with the talks, which remain at a preliminary stage.
“They are quite interested,” said one source.
“Museums with money to build are few and far between. There are not a whole lot of museums willing to spend several million dollars on a new property.”
City planners have designated the corner of 11th Avenue and 30th Street as the site of a future “major cultural facility.” The museum would face a new stadium and exposition center on the opposite side of the avenue. The stadium is slated for completion by 2009.
Guggenheim spokesman Anthony Calnek said the museum’s director attended two presentations by city officials. “He did find them interesting, but we are doing no work on the project,” Calnek said.
Calnek said the museum wouldn’t take any action on a move to the West Side until the city releases a request for proposals, which would spell out what the project entails.
Guggenheim officials have been looking for new space to show their enormous collection. A plan announced four years ago to build a dramatic new museum on two piers over the East River in lower Manhattan was undone by the prohibitive cost of environmental studies.
The East River museum above piers 13 and 14 was also designed by Gehry. The West Side site wouldn’t hold nearly as large a museum. One source said the museum would be interested in having Gehry design the facility.
Vishaan Chakrabarti, director of planning for Manhattan, said leaders of several cultural institutions have expressed interest in moving to the West Side site, just a few blocks north of the growing Chelsea gallery district.
“The good news is that there are these important cultural institutions clamoring to be near the stadium,” said Chakrabarti, who would not identify the specific groups or confirm that one is the Guggenheim.
The museum site would sit on a platform over the MTA’s railroad yard and anchor the southern end of a new, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that’s been proposed to slice its way from 42nd Street to 30th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues.