Neighbors Sue to Stop Whitney Museum Expansion

In what seems like a familiar refrain, neighbors of the Whitney Museum are upset over its 18-floor addition. And now, a residents and the Carlyle Hotel have filed a lawsuit agains the city claiming, as the NY Sun puts it, that "the Board of Standards and Appeals erred in granting the museum variances to zoning regulations, in order to allow the Whitney to go forward with its expansion." The group is still upset over the planned 178 foot tower and a huge crane that is to be installed (to move art around), plus the fact that the Whitney was granted seven variances to move forward with expansion plans.

Culturegrrl has outtakes from a June hearing about the expansion - part I, part II. As you may remember, the tower is supposed to be behind various townhouses on Madison Avenue, but the president of Coalition of Concerned Whitney Neighbors Donald Gringer tells the Sun, "This is an 18-story filing cabinet, a metal building with basically no windows whatsoever, standing amid beautiful townhouses. A steel-paneled building really belongs in an industrial park. I wouldn't up a building like that in the Bronx [where he owns a factory]. He's putting it up in a beautiful landmarked district." And in 2003, the Whitney srapped expansion plans by Rem Koolhaas.