NEW YORK—The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, revamped, restored, and expanded after a three-year closure, is reopening at last, all decked out for the 21st century in its historic Carnegie Mansion home just a few blocks up Fifth Avenue from the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Visitors to the museum, which opened Friday, will be hard-pressed to recognize the old-fashioned, somewhat wonky entity of old. It’s now four stories of cutting-edge galleries, hands-on and community-friendly.
The spacious garden, adjoining cafe and gift shop, housed in Andrew Carnegie’s 19th century picture gallery, will be accessible from a 90th Street gate and open to the public at no charge.
Inside, ticket holders should come ready to experience a new kind of museum straddling art and science, 19th century architecture, and a 21st-century Jetsons sort of world, where 3-D designs can be downloaded and hundreds of wallpaper patterns can be viewed (or designed) at the touch of a finger. Visitors are invited to use the museum as a practical design resource and exploration center as much as a museum in the traditional sense.
“I can’t wait to see how people make use of this,” said museum Director Caroline Baumann, stepping gingerly around multi-touch surfaces the size of billiard tables, contemporary design pieces and even some antique French furniture. “It really makes the heart soar.”
A Full Comeback
With 60 percent more gallery space than it had before, the Cooper Hewitt opens with 10 new shows at once, making use of all four floors.
On the ground floor, Designing the New Cooper Hewitt recounts the museum’s transformation, which involved 12 design teams and took a decade to realize.
The first floor features a “Process Lab” with an industrial-size 3-D printer, among other tools. The lab invites visitors to explore the process of problem solving behind design.
A Beautiful Users exhibit includes pitchers, wheelchairs, and other objects from daily life, examining the shift toward user-oriented design.
A quick climb up one more staircase and the juxtaposition of traditional and cutting-edge really starts to take flight. Making Design brings together a wide range of works from the museum’s permanent collection, while Hewitt Sisters Collect tells the story of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt and their collections of textiles, hatboxes, wall coverings, furniture, and even birdcages (notice the sound of chirping birds), among other decorative arts.
