THE MET’S NEW MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART WING DESIGNED BY MEXICAN ARCHITECT

Developed in close collaboration with teams at The Met over the last two years, Escobedo’s plan for the new Modern and Contemporary Art wing draws on her deep engagement with the Museum’s buildings, collection, and setting within Central Park, resulting in a compellingly dynamic and exceptionally inspired design.

The ambitious project will increase The Met’s gallery space by nearly fifty percent, creating more than 70,000 square feet for the display of the Modern and Contemporary collection, while staying within the existing footprint and overall height of The Met. With this elegant, contemporary concept—which is rooted in her deep understanding of architectural history, materiality, spatial configuration, and artistic expression—Escobedo cements her standing as one of the most relevant contemporary architects while creating history as the first woman to design a wing at The Met.

Taking its cues from architect Kevin Roche’s 1971 master plan for The Met, Escobedo’s design brings a decidedly modern approach that is interwoven with timeless, universal motifs. The exterior façade is defined by a stunning, diaphanous limestone “celosia” that subtly responds to the movement of sunlight throughout the day. Inside, galleries of varying scale, height, and complexity flow into one another, allowing for the display and interaction of works of art of all media and size. The new Tang Wing will also engage in strong dialogue with its surroundings, with features including an expanded Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden on the Wing’s fourth floor, and an additional outdoor terrace on the fifth floor that will provide year-round views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline.

When it opens in 2030, the Tang Wing will provide a worthy home for a new, innovative, and highly relevant installation of The Met’s significantly expanded collection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, one that will be based in a broader global and trans-historical dialogue.

Frida Escobedo established her eponymous studio in Mexico City in 2006. The studio’s reputation—initially built on the strength of a series of competition-winning projects in her native country, including the renovation of the Hotel Boca Chica (2008), the El Eco Pavilion (2010), and the expansion of La Tallera Siqueiros in Cuernavaca (2012)—has achieved global recognition since 2018, when she received the prestigious appointment to design the annual Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens. Following her appointment as the Design Architect for the Tang Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Escobedo opened a studio in New York City in 2022 and is working on other New York–based projects, such as Ray Harlem, a mixed-use development in collaboration with Handel Architects that includes the permanent new home for the National Black Theatre. Most recently, the studio was selected as a co-designer with Moreau Kusunoki for the Centre Pompidou 2030 renovation.