Coins in the Concrete
Apr 12, 2012
The new building team and Whitney staff and their families gathered to celebrate the occasion, April 2012. Photograph by Ed Lederman
On April 5, 2012, Museum director Adam Weinberg, Whitney senior staff, and the new building team gathered for an informal ceremony to commemorate the pouring of the concrete foundation for the Whitney’s new building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.
Adam Weinberg prepares to throw his coin into the foundation, April 2012. Photograph by Kathryn Potts
As the concrete was poured, the group threw coins down into the foundation. Now embedded into the foundation, the coins will bring good luck and prosperity as construction continues to 2015.
The new Whitney Museum of American Art at the corner of Washington and Gansevoort Streets, April 2012. Photograph by Kathryn Potts
Since groundbreaking in May 2011, the project has progressed significantly. After months of clearing and excavating the site where industrial buildings once stood, crews drove I-beams and enormous cylindrical steel casings deep into the ground. The casings were then filled with concrete, becoming critical structural elements to support the foundations and the steel structure that will go up next. Finally, the new Whitney is beginning to emerge from a muddy hole in the ground!
For more on the construction of the new Museum
By: Elizabeth Pisano, Education Intern