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The $50 million expansion of the Queens Museum of Art has gone to bid – for the second time in the last year, and the museum’s executive director is confident that this time, the project is ready to begin.

“When we went out to bid six months ago, many people called it the most difficult time to build in New York City,” Tom Finkelpearl said. “We didn’t receive the number of bids we needed to receive. We decided that we needed to stop and re-bid it. In that process we made some technical adjustments, and now we’re going back out.”

This is the latest step in a process that has been under consideration for the last 30 years. The museum, which is located in the New York Building at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, one of a few remaining relics of the 1939 World’s Fair, has shared its site with an ice rink since it opened in 1975. After more than two decades of planning, and thanks to the opening of the new ice rink on the other side of the park, the 50,000-square-foot expansion project is ready to begin and the museum is ready to take over the entire building.

A Bright Future

But what is planned cannot be done by simply removing the wall that splits the building at its equator, with east and west sides that have very different uses. Instead, this is a complete re-imagining of the site, which will include new exhibition space throughout, a grand lobby and a glass wall that will open the museum up to passersby on foot and along the Grand Central Parkway.

“This is the biggest change in the museum’s history,” Finkelpearl said, “a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.” A renovation from 1992-1994 upgraded the museum and reorganized it, but was not nearly at the scale of the current plan.

Groundbreaking on the massive project is not expected until late spring or early summer, and from there the entire construction is expected to take another two years. During the construction, the museum will remain open, but will lose about one quarter of its exhibition space.

“It might not be the worst time in the world to be a smaller museum,” Finkelpearl admitted. He noted that when the economy is tight, it is hard to run at full throttle. The museum has faced some moderate cuts in City funding, but Finkelpearl said he is confident that by the time the renovated museum opens, the economy will have rebounded. “Two to three years from now will be a good time to re-open,” he said. That’s our optimistic scenario.”

Using The New Space

And when people arrive for the grand re-opening, they will find many of the museum’s existing treasures still on hand – and in more prominent displays. The museum’s World’s Fair collections will have an expanded permanent display location, as will the Tiffany and contemporary art galleries. Also, there will be greatly enhanced temporary exhibition galleries that could bring in some major shows.

Finkelpearl said the museum is pondering options now regarding the first major exhibition in the new space, which may be a collaboration with the Andy Warhol Museum on Pittsburgh to display Warhol’s controversial art that was designed for the 1964-65 World’s Fair but never put on display because of its criticism of Robert Moses.

“It is a defining moment for the museum when you re-open,” Finkelpearl said.

The museum may also choose to install a grand contemporary arts show featuring local and international works – very fitting, Finkelpearl said, given the diverse nature of the borough that the museum calls home.

Breathing New Life

And once the expansion opens, Finkelpearl hopes to increase and sustain a heightened level of visitation that has been experienced by other museums such as PS 1 and the Museum of Modern Art.

“The trajectory of museum expansion is that there is often a big infusion of interest, with increased attendance the first year or so,” Finkelpearl said. “We hope to follow the MoMA model – they increased their attendance and held onto it.”

And when all is said and done the current centerpiece of the museum – the Panorama of the City of New York – will retain its rightful place, though perhaps as less of a hub than it has served.

“It’s the thing that drives crows to the museum, and it’s such a blessing that we have it,” Finkelpearl said. But to remove the north-south wall that currently splits the building in half will allow for such a dramatic expansion of space that the site will change from a museum that is located around the Panorama to a space in which the Panorama is located.

“The Panorama is the reason why I became interested in this museum in the first place,” Finkelpearl added.