WHITNEY’S EXPANSION PLAN MEETS OPPOSITION

The Whitney Museum of American Art’s expansion plan ran into fierce opposition yesterday from neighborhood residents and preservation groups at a public hearing, with the angriest objections focusing on a move to demolish two brownstones next to the museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. As Robin Pogrebin reports in the New York Times, a well-organized contingent of artists, architects and museum directors who support the expansion, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, countered their arguments. Among them were the painter Chuck Close, the sculptor Mark di Suvero, architects like Maya Lin, and museum directors including Philippe de Montebello of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Glenn D. Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art.