Sotheby’s, owner of the former Whitney Museum of American Art building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, has tapped a Swiss architecture firm to give a face-lift to the landmark building that is slated to become its global headquarters.
Auction house Sotheby’s hired Herzog & de Meuron, known for designing the Tate Modern art museum in London, as lead architect for the conversion of the 1960s-era building at 945 Madison Ave. in New York. Construction is expected to start next year, according to a statement.
Herzog & de Meuron plans to reinstate the vision from the property's original architect, Marcel Breuer, while also adapting the space to the "needs of Sotheby’s, the neighborhood and the city today,” the Basel, Switzerland-based architecture firm said in a news release.
Sotheby’s plans for the conversion to include office space for its headquarters staff, art gallery space, auction rooms and a restaurant. In addition, the company said Herzog & de Meuron’s renovation will include “restoring lost spaces both indoors and out, introducing new areas and enhancing natural light.”
Sotheby’s hired New York-based PBDW Architects as architect of record.
The Whitney Museum vacated its previous home in 2014 after its new facility, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, opened at 99 Gansevoort St. in Manhattan’s West Village.
Breuer, a Hungarian-born architect, designed the original Whitney Museum building in a style that blends elements of brutalism and modernism with an exterior that is clad in dark gray panels of unpolished granite. The property, now known as the Breuer Building, opened in 1965.
“The building’s bold sculptural form and prominent location on the Upper East Side ensured that it would become one of the most remarked upon and controversial buildings of the late Modern period in the United States,” according to the Society of Architectural Historians.
Herzog & de Meuron has "always placed great importance on working with existing buildings, not only from a sustainability perspective but also as a conscious engagement with structures from another era that need to be prepared for the future,” the firm said.
For example, Herzog & de Meuron transformed a former power plant in London into the critically acclaimed Tate Modern art museum. The firm’s other projects include the renovation of the Park Avenue Armory on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and the 56 Leonard St. residential tower in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan.
The Frick Collection, a separate art museum, occupied the Breuer Building between 2021 and 2024 during the renovation of its permanent home at 1 E. 70th St. in New York.
Sotheby’s plans to continue occupying its current headquarters office at 1334 York Ave. while the conversion of the former Whitney Museum is ongoing. The company owns the building and occupies about 405,000 square feet in the 10-story Upper East Side property, according to CoStar data.
Residential real estate brokerage Sotheby’s International Realty, a subsidiary of Anywhere Real Estate, licenses its name from the Sotheby’s auction house.