New Design Doubles Public and Gallery Spaces; Expands Asia Society's Role in the Arts, Education, and Policy and Business Issues

The Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Building

Take a virtual tour of our new building!

To meet the increasing demand for greater awareness and understanding of Asia and its dynamic relationship with America, the Asia Society extensively renovated and expanded its world headquarters in New York City. The $30 million initiative substantially enhanced the Asia Society's museum galleries, as well as its public facilities and programs, and strengthened the Society's role as the only institution in North America addressing the intersection of the arts, economics, politics, and society throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The project builds on the Society's more than forty-year record of leadership as a forum for cross-cultural exchange between artists, educators, performers, government officials, Asian American community leaders, business executives, students and the public on both sides of the Pacific.

The renovation, completed in fall 2001, re-configured the interior spaces of the Asia Society's existing red granite building at 725 Park Avenue. While the project was underway, the Society relocated to interim "Asia Society at Midtown" where it continued to present exhibitions and events and where the Asia Society store was in full operation.

The Robert W. Miller Family Staircase

"The next century will be a global one, with the nations of Asia playing an increasingly prominent role in world affairs," said Nicholas Platt, President of the Asia Society. "It has never been more important for Americans to understand Asia than in the face of this changing world. And never has the Asia Society's mission to assemble an extraordinary community of policy makers, scholars, world leaders, and the media to assess fast-developing trends in Asia been more urgent. Enhancing our headquarters enables the Asia Society to provide a richer and more satisfying experience for our visitors and foster more informed public opinion. At the same time, the new facilities provide the tools for the Society to continue to match pace with the technology and information revolutions that are transforming the relationship between the U.S. and Asia," he concluded.

Renovation and Expansion

The new design doubles the interior public and exhibition spaces at the Asia Society's 725 Park Avenue headquarters, which house the Society's museum galleries, permanent collection, auditorium, conference facilities, store, and offices. The creation of new public and exhibition spaces on the Society's second and third floors, as well as the upgrading of existing conference and performance facilities, provides a greater opportunity to present the different voices and perspectives of Asians and Asian-Americans.

A redesigned entrance lobby on Park Avenue and new first floor Visitor Center create a gracious public space to welcome visitors. A new glass-enclosed, sky-lit Garden Court with sculpture, plantings, and a café on the first floor further enhance the visitor's experience. The Garden Court also serves as a venue for intimate performances, readings, discussions with artists, and other special events.

New exhibition spaces allow masterworks from the Society's exceptional Rockefeller Collection of Asian Art to be displayed at all times. This permanent collection includes unparalleled artworks from South Southeast, and East Asia - including bronzes, paintings, ceramics, and sculpture - dating from 2000 B.C.E. to the 19th century.

As part of the renovation, the Society initiated a complete upgrade and enhancement of all its technological resources. A new, flexible communications technology infrastructure enables the Society to broaden its reach, coordinate programs in multiple Society locations worldwide, and instantly link audiences and individuals around the globe. Each of the Society's conference spaces have the latest video conferencing equipment and the auditorium is upgraded to include distance-learning capabilities. Interactive computer terminals in the new Visitor Center and a new Asian Arts Learning Center provide in-depth information on Asia Society exhibitions and programs as well as links to resources on Asian art from around the world.

The Asia Society also enhanced and enlarged its store, creating special areas for readings and events. In addition, the store's offerings expanded to include a diverse collection of design and craft items to complement its renowned book selection. A changing series of cultural and thematic sections have been added, each featuring pieces in a particular medium or from a selected geographic location.

The Gina Lin and David Chu Shoji Screens

Architecture and Design

The Asia Society commissioned noted New York architect Bartholomew Voorsanger for the project. Recent projects by Voorsanger & Associates Architects, PC include: The Pierpont Morgan Library Garden Court and Master Plan (1992); the New York University Center for Advanced Digital Studies (1996); The New York University/Graduate Business Library renovation (1985); the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (1984); The Wethersfield Carriage Museum (1996); and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum Storage (1995). The design significantly reconfigures the interior of the Asia Society's headquarters at 725 Park Avenue, designed in 1980 by Edward Larrabee Barnes, and adds approximately 5,000 square feet to the building in the form of an expanded roof top enclosure over the Garden Court, an extended service alley, and a new mechanical support area.

Exhibitions and Arts Programming

In addition to organizing acclaimed exhibitions that reflect the traditional cultures of the more than thirty countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region, the Society has become the established leader in presenting contemporary work by Asian and Asian American artists. New exhibition galleries enable the Society to expand its entire exhibition program, commission pieces from contemporary artists (see the online press release) and show an even greater range of traditional and ancient works.

"The flexibility and range of the new exhibition galleries allow us creative opportunities that simply haven't been possible previously. Not only will the Society be able to present exhibitions at all times throughout the year, which was not feasible with the previous configuration of the galleries, but new spaces allow us to combine intimate exhibitions of truly exceptional works with comprehensive exhibitions of great intellectual depth and aesthetic reach. In the same way, upgrading our performance spaces and adding new programming venues provides an even greater ability to present cultural and arts programs that both recognize and cut across national boundaries and identities," said Vishakha N. Desai, Senior Vice President of the Society and Director of Galleries and Cultural Programs.

Asia Society Internet Sites and Resources

The Asia Society is a leader in the use of communications technology and the Internet to reach and connect people around the world. The Web sites AsiaSociety.org (www.AsiaSociety.org) and AskAsia (www.AskAsia.org) which have earned more than a dozen national awards for excellence are joined by the newly launched site, AsiaSource (www.AsiaSource.org). This online service offers a gateway to enormous resources of information on Asia, including background and interpretation of breaking news stories, analysis of trends in Asia, guides to Asian visual and performing arts, as well as access to country profiles and experts on all aspects of Asian public affairs, history, and culture. The Society's renovation put in place the physical resources to extend this innovative use of interactive technologies and further promote communication between Asians, Asian-Americans, and people throughout the U.S.

Asia Society Around the World

The Asia Society's New York headquarters serves as the central hub of an international network of Regional Centers in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Australia, as well as Representative Offices in Seattle, Shanghai, San Francisco, and Manila. The Society's centers and offices in Asia address a critical need for meeting grounds where Asians can work together across geopolitical boundaries as well as expand their contacts with the United States. Renovating the Society's headquarters improves communications between these worldwide locations and allows seamless coordination of the hundreds of programs, performances, conferences, seminars, and symposia held at these sites each year.

About the Asia Society

The Asia Society's combination of expertise and programming in the arts and culture, policy and business, and education, is unique both nationally and internationally. While there are many prominent organizations that focus on one Asian country or issue, the Asia Society is the only institution that integrates a comprehensive range of information, analysis, and insight on all the countries of Asia and across the fields of art, commerce, and government.

Arts and Culture

The Asia Society presents extraordinary exhibitions of traditional and contemporary Asian art, commissions original performances, and hosts tours by Asia's most renowned dancers, musicians, artists, actors, authors, and poets. The Society is also a premiere showcase for works by the growing number of Asian-American visual and performing artists. These cultural programs serve as one of the Society's more powerful tools for fostering cross-cultural understanding.

While at the interim "Asia Society at Midtown" site, the Society organized and hosted numerous exhibitions and performances. Sheer Realities: Clothing and Power in Nineteenth Century Philippines, organized by the Asia Society, opened at the Grey Art Gallery at New York University on February 16, 2000. Among the exhibitions presented at "Asia Society at Midtown" were: Spiritual Perfection: Religious Sculpture of South and Southeast Asia. The Asia Society co-commissioned Forgiveness, a contemporary, multidisciplinary theater piece directed by Chen Shi-Zheng that explored the turbulent and intertwining histories of China, Japan, and Korea. Forgiveness, which featured a cast of artists from East Asia and the United States, toured the U.S. and Europe in 2000 and was performed in New York in July 2001.

Policy and Business

The Asia Society not only educates the public on political and economic developments in Asia, but also informs debate among policy-makers both in the U.S. and Asia on these critical issues. Through a wide range of meetings with world leaders, international conferences with corporate executives, and studies exploring trend-setting developments, the Asia Society helps decision-makers confront some of the world's most pressing social and political issues.

Central among the Society's dozens of programs is the newly launched Asian Social Issues Initiative (http://www.asiasource.org/asip.cfm), a five-year project to explore solutions to such pervasive problems as pollution, sectarian conflicts, aging populations, health care, and employment. Another signature event is the Annual Corporate Conference in Asia, co-presented with Dow Jones & Company. The conference brings the leaders of multinational corporations together with heads of state and key government officials to examine economic trends and geopolitical developments in the conference site country. This year's conference, China and Asia at the Turn of the Century: Opportunities for World Business, was held in Shanghai in May.

Education

The Asia Society's educational initiatives focus on improving the quality of education about Asia at the elementary and secondary levels, and provide curricular materials, services, and support for teachers and schools throughout the United States. The Society's extensive use of the latest interactive media serves as a ground-breaking model for educational outreach.

The Asia Society's award-winning AskAsia website, launched in early 1997, has quickly become one of the premiere resources for K-12 educators and students interested in Asian and Asian-American studies. The site provides access to exceptionally rich original content and high-quality classroom-tested resources, and as well as links to relevant people, places, and institutions. The development of prototype educational products, such as the CD-ROM "Journeys along the Silk Roads," are establishing new ways to engage students in an exploration of Asian history and its influence on modern life. The Asia Society's Education Division is preparing to announce the launch of major national educational initiative later this year.

The Asia Society was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd to foster understanding between Asians and Americans. Mr. Rockefeller established the Society at a time when many in the United States still thought of Asia as remote from American interests. As the Society has tracked the transformation of Asian countries into major participants in global politics, economics, and the arts, it has grown to meet the increasing need for informed public debate, becoming the preeminent organization where America and Asia meet. Asia House, on East 64th Street in New York City, was the first home of the nonprofit, nonpolitical educational institution; the Asia Society moved to its current home at 725 Park Avenue in 1981.

Photos © Thomas Loof