Larger Smithsonian design museum proposed

NEW YORK, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A proposal was presented to the trustees of the Smithsonian Institution for a $75 million expansion of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

The new facility will provide more space for large exhibitions that cannot now be mounted.

Paul W. Thompson, director of the museum on upper Fifth Avenue, said in disclosing the proposal Thursday the Cooper-Hewitt's board has been concerned for the past decade about physical constraints in terms of exhibition space, storage space, and teaching facilities.

"When loan exhibitions of 10,000 square feet and above are offered the museum by our sister institutions in Vienna, London, and Paris, we are unable to accept them," Thompson said. "That is one of the reasons the number of annual visitors to the museum is stuck at about 150,000."

The Cooper-Hewitt is housed in the former Andrew Carnegie mansion whose warren of domestic-size rooms makes it difficult for the museum to compete with other institutions for large-scale exhibitions. It also means the museum must close the galleries for long periods to change shows.

Thompson said the proposal calls for three new floors beneath the garden of the museum. The firm of Beyer Blinder Belle, which restored Grand Central Terminal, has drafted a master plan for the project, he said.