It was just a few weeks ago the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the former Whitney Museum of American Art—completed by Marcel Breuer and Associates in 1966, renamed the Met Breuer in 2016, and acquired by Sotheby’s in 2023—an individual and interior landmark.
Sotheby’s hired Herzog & de Meuron to adapt the former Met Breuer in 2024, one year after its purchase. The Swiss office shared its vision this week for the new home of Sotheby’s New York on Madison Avenue, dubbed The Breuer.
Herzog & de Meuron said in a statement that the adaptation is “guided by a deep respect for its architectural significance and its enduring role as a temple to art.”
“Over the decades,” the architects added, “it has housed some of New York’s most significant art collections—from the Whitney to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to the Frick, and soon, important works slated for auction at Sotheby’s.”
Renderings show the building’s exquisite Brutalist features intact, and classic paintings by Jackson Pollock and Frank Stella still adorning the walls. The “sensitive adaptation and renovation,” Sotheby’s said, will deliver new world class gallery space for displaying the auction house’s “full suite of offerings.”
“The building readily lends itself to this next chapter as an art auction house, with many iconic spaces and programmatic uses remaining intact,” Herzog & de Meuron continued. “The restoration follows a light-touch approach, preserving defining features while introducing subtle upgrades to meet Sotheby’s functional and operational needs while honoring Marcel Breuer’s original design.”
The adaptation is slated for completion by the end of 2025.
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