COOPER-HEWITT PLANS TO EXPAND

Seeking a higher profile and more visitors, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is proposing a $75 million expansion that would create three new floors beneath the spacious gated garden of its home, the landmark Carnegie Mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Robin Pogrebin reports in the New York Times. A proposal circulated among a task force of staff members and trustees at the Cooper-Hewitt and its parent, the Smithsonian Institution, argues that a bigger “design campus” will be essential “if the museum is indeed to fulfill its national mission and create substantive programs with long-term impact.” This so-called case statement is based on a master plan by the Manhattan architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle, which drafted the first master plan for ground zero and is perhaps best known for its restoration of Grand Central Terminal.