The Whitney 2.0

On May 1, the brand-new Whitney Museum of American Art will reopen at a new downtown New York space designed by Renzo Piano. Located in the Meatpacking District, the museum may have a clunky exterior, but when visitors step inside, much is forgiven. One of New York’s most eagerly awaited new buildings, it marks the culmination of more than three decades of planning and false starts. It sits at what has to be New York’s chicest site, in its hottest neighborhood. And it has been designed by one of the most admired, not to say most prolific museum architects in the world. So if any building in New York is in everyone’s sights, it is this one. Construction began in May 2011, and its prominent location makes the building visible not only from the High Line but also from the West Side Highway, which it adjoins, and from plenty of other locations in the Meatpacking District and West Chelsea.

The new Whitney is eight stories high- a pile of white metal panels, steel, concrete, and glass totaling more than 200,000 square feet- pretty hard to miss. Costing $422 million to construct, it is a twenty-first century museum and state-of-the-art facility on a unique site where Piano’s design respectfully responds to the building’s surroundings and the history of the neighborhood. The building also fully utilizes the expansive site to realize breathtaking flexible gallery spaces. And for the fashionistas and architect nerds, to commemorate the unveiling, the architect and Italian fashion house Max Mara have created a limited-edition bag that mirrors the steel ribbing and graphic lines of the building’s bluish-grey facade. www.whitney.org  www.maxmara.com