On Liberty Island in New York today, more than just city tourists gathered around the torch-toting copper lady. On the opposite end of the island, a new Statue of Liberty Museum topped out with its final beam-raising—a milestone that comes a little more than a year after the museum's groundbreaking. Set for completion in 2019, the 26,000-square-foot center designed by architect FXFOWLE and exhibit designer ESI Design will serve as an extension of the exhibition space currently in the base of Lady Liberty's tower.
A sweeping glass facade inside the new Statue of Liberty Museum will allow views of the Lower Manhattan skyline and Lady Liberty herself.
"In the spirit of Gustave Eiffel [Lady Liberty's infamous Parisian architect], all of the structure stays exposed and painted out," said Nicholas Garrison, partner at FXFOWLE. "We're celebrating the way this is built by leaving it exposed." Entered from the ground level, the museum is an interactive experience. An immersive theater greets visitors where they can follow the story of the Statue's creation and construction, and contemplate what liberty means to themselves and the world. Other galleries explore the construction process, provide history of the tower's 1968 restoration, and display its original torch (currently housed in the Statue's base).
A rendering of the museum's interactive interior exhibits.
If visitors choose to climb the grand exterior staircase from the ground level, the museum itself becomes both a hardscaped viewing terrace for the statue and the harbor and a habitat planted with native meadow grasses. "We wanted the building not to be another monument, but to be a fun place to come in and to climb on," said Garrison. "For people who don't even come into the museum, there will be something for them to do and a new experience to be had."
