$70M FXFOWLE-designed Statue of Liberty Museum receives approval
It’s full steam ahead for the FXFOWLE-designed Statue of Liberty Museum. Per the Journal, The National Park service approved plans on Wednesday to erect the free-standing structure on Liberty Island. The development team broke ground on the project in early October and at the same time releasing renderings of what would eventually rise on the site. As 6sqft previously reported, the $70 million museum is being helped along by Diane von Furstenberg, who has been named the honorary “godmother” of the project. Von Furstenberg is currently spearheading fundraising efforts for the museum and hopes to secure $100 million from donors for the development. Von Furstenberg, along with her husband Barry Diller, are also in the midst of pushing another civic project forward, Pier55 Park.
In a press release, von Furstenberg said: “Lady Liberty is the symbol of everything America is about: freedom, hope, possibility and resilience. It is She that millions of immigrants saw first as they arrived in this country, their hearts full of dreams for a brighter future. Now it is my hope that the Statue of Liberty and her incredible story will live on and on, inspiring generations for years to come.”
The new Statue of Liberty Museum will span 26,000 square feet and feature a sloping green roof that will top off an angular structure of glass, concrete and granite—a nod to the materials used to build the statue. The building will be erected directly across the from Lady Liberty, where an existing museum is currently housed in its pedestal. Increased capacity will allow for 1,000 visitors per hour. As it stands, only about 20 percent of the 4.3 million annual visitors can access the existing museum.
The initiative is the work of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (SLEIF), National Park Service and U.S. Department of the Interior. The new space is expected to be unveiled in 2019, and admission to the new museum will come packaged with ferry tickets to Liberty and Ellis Islands.
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