Mario Botta, a Swiss architect, designed the museum at 151 Third Street. It opened in January 1995 on a former parking lot, five stories tall. Its nearly windowless facade is striated brick, and a cylindrical light well topped by a 130-foot elliptical skylight rises above it.
Snøhetta was selected in July 2010, broke ground in May 2013 and reopened the museum on May 14, 2016 after a three-year closure. The expansion adds about 235,000 square feet (21,800 m²), with seven floors for art and public programs and three for support space. Its facades use fiber-reinforced plastic panels, which the article calls the largest use of composites in U.S. architecture at the time.
The expansion provides about 142,000 square feet (13,200 m²) of gallery space, indoors and out. The Botta staircase was removed, but the silo was kept. The introduction gives 170,000 square feet of exhibition space, which does not match the body.
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