Museum Seeks Support for Move to Tweed Courthouse

Officials of the Museum of the City of New York are on the offensive against Mayor Bloomberg's recent threat to stop the museum from moving to majestic quarters in the Tweed Courthouse on Chambers Street.

On Feb. 19 museum representatives appealed to Community Board 1 to voice support for the move, which the mayor said should be reconsidered for budgetary reasons. "We’re reaching out to the community and to our membership," Linda Lange, the museum’s vice president for operations, told the board. "We want to let the mayor know that we want to move down here and be a part of this community. We want to be part of the renaissance of Lower Manhattan" after the World Trade Center attack.

The board overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting the museum, and urging the city to carry out its agreement to move the institution from its current home on Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street. The deal, which was announced more than a year ago, was championed by the Giuliani administration but denounced by the East Harlem community and former City Councilwoman Kathryn Freed.

Lange said the museum had been discussing the move with the city for four years and had worked extensively with architects and engineers to plan gallery spaces in the courthouse, behind City Hall. The grand 1880 building, named for the Tammany Hall political boss William M. Tweed, just underwent a lavish, $80 million renovation and now practically glows inside and out.

Sarah Henry, the museum’s vice president for programs, told the community board that the museum planned extensive educational programs downtown, in addition to its exhibits, including lectures, walking tours, and concerts in a new auditorium. Moving to the Tweed building would double the museum’s exhibition space.

The museum was scheduled to open at the Tweed building in 2004, but had hoped to mount temporary shows there as early as this spring, possibly including an exhibit of remnants of the destroyed twin towers. But Henry said all plans are on hold because of the uncertainty over the museum’s future.

Other temporary shows were to include: an exhibit of photographs of Ground Zero by Joel Meyerowitz, which are being displayed this month in national capitals around the world; the "wall of prayer" from Bellevue Hospital—with notices and photos of people missing at the World Trade Center, posted by their loved ones—which the museum dismantled and planned to reassemble; and an exhibit of artworks responding to the Trade Center disaster that is now at the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C. and will soon go on a national tour.

On Feb. 7 Bloomberg said the museum’s move was being reviewed, along with numerous other city projects, because of budget constraints. He said other uses for the Tweed Courthouse were being considered, including turning it into city office space.