Whitney to Build Satellite Museum in Lower Manhattan

The Whitney Museum of American Art has unveiled a design by architect Renzo Piano for a satellite museum in lower Manhattan.

The museum's bold, asymmetrical design will provide 50,000 square feet of gallery space over six floors, compared with 32,000 square feet at its uptown location. It will allow the Whitney to show more of its 20th- and 21st-century collection and offer more temporary exhibitions.

The design also calls for an education facility, a research library and a multi-use space for film, video and the performing arts.

The museum will be built in the city's culturally evolving Meatpacking District near the High Line, an elevated rail bed that's being converted into a public garden.

Construction is slated to begin in spring 2009 and completed in late 2012.