Corning Museum of Glass Delays Expansion’s Opening

A rendering of he new north wing at the Corning Museum of Glass. Photo: courtesy of Thomas Phifer & Partners.

The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York—one of artnet News‘s recommended art day trips for New Yorkers) has pushed back the grand opening of its new north wing, designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners, from December of this year to March 20, 2015.

An email from the museum press representatives cited “this past winter’s record-breaking cold and snow” as being responsible for the delay. With construction on the $64 million project having fallen behind schedule, “this compressed the museum’s installation schedule for the fragile collection of contemporary art in glass.” The rescheduled opening date has been selected “out of an abundance of caution.”

The glass-walled new wing, measuring a massive 100,000 square feet, will feature a surfeit of natural light, thanks to diffusing skylights, and a “hot theater” venue for glass-making demonstrations that will seat 500. When completed, the north wing’s 26,000-square-foot contemporary art and design gallery building will be largest space for displaying contemporary glass art in the world.

The Corning Museum’s closest American rival, in terms of glass collections, is Norfolk, Virginia’s Chrysler Museum, which also recently completed an ambitious expansion that allows it to display more of its extensive glass holdings.


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