Kate Taylor and Carol Vogel explore the conundrum facing the Whitney Museum which has been trying to expand in New York City for decades. With 18,000 works of art in their collection but only room to show 150, the museum needs and wants a new building but many on the board fear it does not have enough money to run a second location. Plans are afoot for that satellite location downtown:

The institution has quietly been gathering financial support for the $680 million project, which would involve a new 185,000-square-foot building on a city-owned site at Washington and Gansevoort Streets in the meatpacking district. Whitney officials say they have promises and signed pledges totaling $371 million and expect to have $105 million more from the sale of adjacent brownstones and its annex building uptown. […]

And Gilbert C. Maurer, a longtime board member and former president said: “This is like the politicians who love to build bridges but hate to paint them. I’m not as involved as I once was, but I think that like all institutions in this economy, it’s probably possible to build a building. The challenge is how are you going to operate it. And that’s worrisome.”

Rift in Family as Whitney Plans a Second Home (New York Times)