{"id":221267,"date":"2026-05-05T22:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/221267\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T22:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:58:13","slug":"construction-begins-for-new-uws-home-of-the-childrens-museum-of-manhattan-see-new-renderings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/221267\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction Begins for New UWS Home of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan: See New Renderings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A rendering of the future home of the Children\u2019s Museum of Manhattan. Renderings courtesy of Shawmut Design and Construction<\/p>\n

By Gus Saltonstall<\/p>\n

Construction has officially begun on the project to transform a century-old Upper West Side church into the new home<\/a> of the Children\u2019s Museum of Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The museum is expected to move from its longtime home at 212 West 83rd Street into the new, much larger space at 361 Central Park West, on the corner of West 96th Street, in 2028.<\/p>\n

Shawmut Design and Construction is overseeing the project to turn the church into what it describes as a \u201cseven-story learning lab for the children and families of New York City.\u201d The demolition of the interior of the church has already been completed, and the technical structural work has begun \u201cto delicately thread seven floors within the cavernous building while preserving the overall structure and key spatial features,\u201d according to a statement from Shawmut.<\/p>\n

The new 80,000-square-foot building will be double the size of the Children\u2019s Museum of Manhattan\u2019s current home at West 83rd Street and include a cafe, museum store, performance space, and rooftop terrace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A rendering of what the new museum will look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to begin this next phase and ultimately build a welcoming, expanded, and accessible space that will serve the community for years to come,\u201d said David Margolius, executive vice president of Shawmut\u2019s New York Metro region, in a news release.<\/p>\n

The Children\u2019s Museum of Manhattan raised $300 million for the project, including $50 million from Laurie M. Tisch, $46.1 million allocated by the city, and $30 million from the Bezos Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

The former house of worship on West 96th Street was the home of First Church of Christ, Scientist, which closed in 2014 and was originally expected to be turned into condos. The city ended up rejecting the plan in 2016, though, and then in 2018 the children\u2019s museum announced that it had purchased the building.<\/p>\n

The renovation of the West 96th Street church marks the first time the museum has expanded in more than four decades.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rendering of the future home of the Children\u2019s Museum of Manhattan. Renderings courtesy of Shawmut Design and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[73677,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-221267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-childrens-museum-of-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}