Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of American Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art Relocation and

The Whitney Museum of American Art is New York's premier collection of 20th and 21st-century American Art. In 2014, the museum moved downtown from its previous location for nearly 50 years on the Upper East Side. The new home would place at the beginning of the popular High Line, and a short walk from the vibrant Chelsea art gallery scene.

The modern and intriguing design by Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Cooper, Robertson Partners earned its spot as one of the highlights of signature starchitect projects on the West Side. Given the complexity of the design, Turner provided four years of preconstruction services that included geothermal and environmental impact studies.

The Whitney, clad in enamel steel plate, features six levels above grade and two below. The new space includes the largest column-free gallery in Manhattan, a 170-seat theater overlooking the Hudson River, numerous conservation laboratories in the curatorial space, a plaza for public gathering, and the Laurie M. Tisch Education Center a dedicated space for hands-on education learning, and in-depth and interdisciplinary programming. Critical to the project's success was Turner's ability to overcome the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy which flooded the site with six and half million gallons of seawater. After remediating the site, Turner and WTM Engineers design-built a flood mitigation system that includes a 27-foot wide by 14-foot tall flood gate weighing more than 7 tons. Ultimately, this flood mitigation system safeguarded the Whitney's space programming requirements and set a new standard in flood protection and museum design.