Those still mourning the loss of the Todd Williams Billie Tsien-designedAmerican Folk Art Museum at MoMA’s hands may find some (small) consolation in a new revelation: Although the building will still be demolished as planned, “We will take the façade down, piece by piece, and we will store it,” MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry told the New York Times.
Taking down the façade is going to be a surprisingly simple task; the now-iconic surface of the idiosyncratic 13-year-old building comprises 3/8-inch-thick bronze panels that are actually “very amenable to disassembly,” principal of MoMA expansion architects Diller Scofidio + RenfroAlberto Cavallero told the Times. But what the museum will do with them once they’ve been wrapped for storage is another matter.