A museum devoted to climate change, which has hosted pop-ups in New York for six years, has secured a location for a permanent home in the city’s Hudson Yards neighborhood. The Climate Museum will be sited in a 24,000-square-foot facility at 418 11th Avenue. Construction will begin in 2026; opening is slated for 2029.

One of several such institutions around the world, the museum has organized exhibitions and public events around New York at sites like the New School, Governors Island, Rockefeller Center, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, welcoming some 150,000 visitors. The museum has shown artworks by artists including Mona Chalabi, Justin Brice Gauriglia, R. Gregory Christie, David Opdyke, and Gabriela Salazar that convey a message related to global warming.

“As the first museum in the United States dedicated to climate change, we are excited to announce that we will now have a permanent home,” said Miranda Massie, the museum’s founder and director, in press materials. “Our exhibitions have already inspired waves of civic action. This permanent, year-round space will make our signature, interactive arts and cultural programming more accessible to more people. Ultimately, this means more climate dialogue and action—moving us closer to a safe and just future.”

Artwork by R. Gregory Christie on view at a previous pop-up by the Climate Museum. Photo: Sari Goodfriend.

A former social justice lawyer, Massie was inspired to create the Climate Museum after Hurricane Sandy slammed New York City in 2012, killing 53 and causing about $42 billion in damage.

The museum will be designed by FXCollaborative, the team behind New York’s Statue of Liberty Museum, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, the Museum of the Built Environment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the Housatonic River Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, among other cultural, educational, and religious structures.

“The FXCollaborative team is thrilled to design a welcoming, inspiring space for the Climate Museum that empowers climate progress and serves as a model for the sustainable future we can create together,” said Dan Kaplan FAIA, FXCollaborative senior partner. “The museum’s prominent location straddling Hudson Yards and the Javits Center is a fitting location for a compelling public forum for New Yorkers and visitors to face this all-important issue.”

A past pop-up exhibition organized by the Climate Museum. Photo: Sari Goodfriend.

Not every expert is necessarily on board with a purpose-built home. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, “The buildings and construction sector is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for a staggering 37 percent of global emissions.” Museum consultant András Szántó, speaking to the New York Times in 2023, said that it would reveal “a deep disconnect” to “build a big shiny new building to tell the story of sustainability,” arguing for pop-ups as more in line with the institution’s philosophy. 

“But,” said Massie in the same article, “we burn through a lot of carbon having to move every six months.”