Formerly known as the Museum for African Art, this museum created a new space along Fifth Avenue to serve as a cultural and policy center inclusive of an exhibition space, conference space, theater, education center, library, classrooms, event space, restaurant and gift shop to support the local community, as well as visiting dignitaries.
Situated on New York’s Museum Mile, this building is the first new museum built on the strip since the completion of the Guggenheim in 1959. In addition to the exhibition, conference spaces, event space and classrooms, there is a public atrium on the ground floor that fills the space with light due to the wide span of windows along the building.
The project included a complete stand-alone mechanical and electrical infrastructure systems independent of the base building systems to allow for operational independence. The systems include dedicated cooling towers, temperature and humidity controlled floor mounted air conditioning units, flexible power systems to allow for changing installations and events, catering kitchen to serve the dining hall and outdoor terrace overlooking Central Park, a tenant generator system to supply backup power to the event spaces as well as life safety systems and an atrium smoke control system to meet NYC atrium codes.