MOCA is #72 in Time Out New York’s 1000 Things To Do in New York (2008 Edition)

   

 

 

"No. 72: Visit the brand new MOCA"

 

With New York’s Chinese population nearly doubling since 1990, MOCA’s measly 2,000-square-foot space on Mulberry Street—shuttered in February 2008—hadn’t been cutting it for some time: “We would have to turn people away because it was too crowded,” says public-affairs officer Amanda Heng. Designed by Vietnam Veterans Memorial architect Maya Lin, a new $15 million home on Centre Street—due to open to the public, at the time of writing, in fall 2008—incorporates organic elements like bronze walls, floors made of reclaimed wood, and a giant skylight that illuminates the museum’s two-floor atrium. 

 

This roomier 14,000-square-foot structure has allowed curators to develop several new gallery shows, including one on slinky, sleeveless qipao dresses and another, “Archeology of Change,” that tracks gentrification in Chinatown by spotlighting five erstwhile landmarks (including the building the museum is housed in, the former Grand Machinery Exchange). In a nicely unostentatious touch, donor plaques have been eschewed in favor of a most tasteful “journey wall,” where tiles reveal the paths contributors’ families took to arrive in the US.