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Frick's Plan for Expansion Faces Fight over Loss of Garden
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Officials at the Frick Collection knew their plan to build a six-story addition to a beloved, New York landmark — jewel-box museum — would draw detractors. But museum leaders did not expect the opposition to get so intense, so fast.
Critics opposed to the plan want to save the museum garden designed roughly 40 years ago by the British landscape architect Russell Page that is to be destroyed in the expansion.
Preservation of the garden has emerged as the focal point for opposition to build an addition that would extend into the area currently occupied by the garden on East 70th Street on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan.
The 1914 building — designed by Carrère and Hastings in Beaux-Arts vernacular for the industrialist Henry Clay Frick — has been altered before. In the changes from the 1970s, the Frick added its entrance lobby, and two years ago, it converted an outdoor portico into indoor space. There have been three unsuccessful attempts to expand the museum since 2001. The institution says it needs additional space because attendance has increased since 1935, when the museum opened.
The expansion would give the Frick about 50 percent more space for temporary exhibitions and 24 percent more for its permanent collection of works by artists like Degas, El Greco, Manet and Renoir.
Among those who back the Frick’s plan is Fredric M. Bell, the executive director of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
"Some of the sacred cows of preservation could be looked at fresh," Mr. Bell said. "This is an example of that because this is being respectful to the existing fabric. It’s not copying what was there before; it’s paying respect to it by not challenging it."
Other prominent design voices weighing in against the museum’s plan include Robert A. M. Stern, the dean of the Yale School of Architecture.
"Gardens are works of art," he said in an interview. "This one is in perfect condition by Russell Page, one of the pre-eminent garden designers of the 20th century, and it should be respected as such. It’s as important as a tapestry or even a painting, and I think the museum is obliged to recognize its importance."
Among the groups that have voiced their disapproval are the Historic Districts Council, which reviews presentations on landmark properties headed for the landmarks commission, and Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts. In September, the friends group wrote a letter to the Frick likening its garden to the White House lawn. "It can be fully appreciated, in all its majesty," the group said, "without stepping foot inside the gate."
Although occasionally used for events, the garden has largely been a passive space, but Charlotte Schwarz, 85, who has lived across the street for 24 years, said its visual grace is only enhanced by the fact that the view of its pea gravel paths and boxwood are rarely interrupted.
The Frick has a larger garden on its Fifth Avenue side — designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. — Ms. Davidson pointed out, adding that there is the whole of Central Park across the street. "I think we can manage to do without that garden," she said. "In the balance of things, it’s a sacrifice worth making."
But is it?