Frick’s Expansion Is Approved by Landmarks Preservation Board

NEW YORK — In a major victory for the Frick Collection, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved the museum’s latest plan to expand and renovate its 1914 Gilded Age mansion — the institution’s fourth such attempt to gain more space for its exhibitions and public programs.

“They recognized the strength of the plan to upgrade the building to ensure the long term vibrancy of the Frick,” said Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s director. “The public process can be painful, but we listened and I think the project is better because of that.”

The commission voted 6-1 (with one abstention) after the Frick had presented a revised proposal in response to concerns raised by commissioners at a public hearing in May.

Some critics were disappointed by Tuesday’s vote. Theodore Grunewald, a preservationist, called it “a vote for blandness.”

Others called it progress. Peg Breen, the president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, which opposed the Frick’s previous proposal in 2015, called the Frick’s revised plan — by Annabelle Selldorf in collaboration with the architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle — “a very respectful addition.”

“They listened to a lot of people and delivered a plan that deserves support,” she added, citing in particular the museum’s decision to restore and feature the original gated garden on East 70th Street. The Frick’s presentation Tuesday pushed back the addition to allow for additional greenery behind the garden’s north wall.

Designed by Russell Page, the garden had become a flash point, since the Frick’s previous plan called for replacing it with a six-story addition that would connect the museum to its art reference library on East 71st Street.

An outcry from architects, preservationists and critics helped defeat that proposal in June 2015, sending the Frick back to the drawing board.

The most recent iteration instead highlights views of the garden from a renovated lobby; creates a new second level above the reception hall; and adds a new education center, cafe and expanded museum shop.

Despite the setbacks along the way, the Frick persevered in its efforts to make more room in the Fifth Avenue landmark mansion, designed by the firm Carrère and Hastings for the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The collection of about 1,400 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and decorative arts — including works by Rembrandt, Goya, Vermeer and Renoir — has more than doubled since the Frick opened in 1935.

The Frick’s music room will become a special exhibitions gallery, immediately adjacent to the permanent galleries and within the original square footprint, reusing the existing doorways with original wood trim and wood floors.

A 220-seat underground auditorium, the Frick argued, would better serve its educational and public programs than the current music room. Some advocates unsuccessfully tried to get the Landmarks Commission to postpone Tuesday’s vote to consider an interior landmark designation for the Frick that would preserve the music room, designed by John Russell Pope.

“The Music Room offers something completely unique and irreplaceable in New York City — the opportunity to hear chamber music and piano recitals in the intimate confines of the Frick mansion,” said Michael Gotkin, a preservation advocate. “When you hear a concert at the Music Room, you feel like a privileged guest at a private performance in a grand home.”

The Frick project will now continue through the public process and is expected to break ground in early 2020, and to be completed in 2022.