The Johnson Museum... Creating the Future

In 2002 an external review panel of museum professionals from Harvard, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Minnesota submitted that “the art display and storage spaces in the current facility are filled to capacity…the Johnson Museum will be very hard-pressed to accommodate further collection growth without new space.”

The Johnson currently has gallery space to display about 765 objects, or 2.5% of the collection. Since opening in 1973, the Johnson’s permanent collection has grown from 9,000 objects to more than 32,000.

The extension has been designed by the original architecture firm of the Johnson Museum building, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, and the original architect-in-charge, John Sullivan, Cornell Class of 1962. Plans have been based on the original I. M. Pei design for the Museum, which included an underground extension to the north.

The three-floor, above- and below-ground extension will add approximately 16,000 gross square feet to the existing 61,000 square feet.

The new space will provide more and improved exhibition space, more programming space, more space for public, non-exhibition access to the collection, space for lectures and performances, and closed storage space.

Concurrent renovations to the existing building’s fifth-floor Asian galleries will increase exhibition space there by 50%. Gallery space in the new wing will be designated for contemporary art.

About $15 million of the $17 million total cost has been raised to date. The Johnson was awarded a challenge grant of $500,000 in 2006 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which must be matched 4-to-1.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for Spring 2008, with a public opening in 2010.

Please contact Frank Robinson, The Richard J. Schwartz Director, or Marrie Neumer, director of development, for more information about the planned expansion. Additional drawings can be found here.

Read more about our plans for expansion in the Cornell Alumni Magazine and Communiqué (two PDF articles, Summer 2004 and Winter 2006), the magazine of the Division of Alumni Affairs and Development.

Download a copy of our Naming Spaces brochure to learn more about naming opportunities in the new wing and the original building (1MB Adobe PDF).