Noguchi Museum Will Expand, Open Sculptor's Studio: Report

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The Noguchi Museum in Astoria will expand its exhibit space and open the namesake sculptor's studio to the public for the first time, according to reports.

The Noguchi Museum, founded by the late Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi, will restore and open his original studio and add a 6,000-square-foot building to display its archives, The New York Times reported. Noguchi was best known for his stone sculptures.

"My hope is, by building this art and archives building and opening up the studio building, we’ll now be able to tell more complete stories about Noguchi’s work," Brett Littman, director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, told The Times.

Visitors will be able to tour the studio building, which houses Noguchi's pied-à-terre apartment, or use it as an event space, according to The Times.

"Unless you’ve been to the Noguchi during his lifetime and sat with him, very few people have ever been in the apartment," Littman told The Times.

Manhattan-based architecture firm Büro Koray Duman is designing the art archive building, according to Astoria Post. The new building will include many pieces the museum moved off-site for safekeeping during Hurricane Sandy, which flooded the basement.

Construction on the archive building will start in January 2020. The studio renovation will start in 2021 and be complete by 2022.

Read the full story in The New York Times.