MOCA occupies an airy former machine shop designed by prominent Chinese-American architect Maya Lin—and it is about to undergo a major renovation that will cost around $118 million. Set to close in 2023 to start construction efforts, the new iteration of the museum will expand its current 12-000-square-feet footprint to nearly 68,000 square feet over a total of nine stories. It scheduled to re-open in 2025. You can see renderings of the plans right here.
The revamped museum will feature a community space, a center for research and genealogy, a two-story lecture hall, classrooms, a cooking demonstration kitchen, outdoor gathering spaces, a giant atrium, a theater, a canteen and, of course, plenty of exhibition areas that will tell the story of the Chinese immigrants who now call the United States home. Even more specifically, the institution's permanent collection will be set up on the third and fourth floors of the building while the fifth level will be reserved for temporary exhibits.
The actual shows will be designed in collaboration with Lin herself and Ralph Appelbaum Associates, who are responsible for the recent, much-anticipated opening of the Halls of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History.