Newly relocated in what was once Manhattan’s Pigalle, now turned the island’s Kardashian District, the Whitney has achieved the nearly impossible: instant landmark status. Picture the Brooklyn Bridge materializing out of East River mist, and you’ll have a sense of the awe the edifice suddenly commands. Here’s the consensus among both institutional allies and critics: Not only did the Whitney pull off its move downtown, but it also engineered a building to showcase art (as opposed to simply pandering to tourists). Less than a week after the ribbon-cutting, it’s safe to say few art lovers will miss the old Marcel Breuer ziggurat on 75th and Madison, now ceded to the Met. –Christian Viveros-Fauné
See also:
• At the New Whitney, ‘America Is Hard to See’ Is a Homespun Blockbuster
• Michelle Obama on the New Whitney: ‘I Know the Feeling of Not Belonging in a Place Like This’
PHOTOS BY MARK HEWKO FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE