Cooper Hewitt history

Three years later, the family moved into their new abode and helped solidify the area as “most desirable.” To this day, the area containing the lower 90s west of Lexington Avenue is still called Carnegie Hill. Thus in 1898, Carnegie along with his wife Louisa, purchased the land and hired the firm of Babb, Cook & Willard to design the home.

Babb, Cook & Willard’s competition drawings were first unveiled to the public in the Architectural Record of July 1899.

When in 1901 the institution was alerted to the imminent disturbance of his grave in Italy because of mining in the area, regent Alexander Graham Bell began advocating for the remains to be shipped to the United States.

From 1902, the first floor of the Carnegie Mansion.

The three sisters served as directors of the Museum until Sarah Cooper Hewitt died in 1930.

In 1938, Edwin S. Burdell became the director of the Cooper Union.

After Louisa’s death, the mansion was gifted to the Carnegie Corporation who leased it to Columbia University’s School of Social Work started in 1949.

The Carnegie Corporation leases the mansion and 9 E 90th Street (now known as the Miller House) to the New York School of Social Work (renamed the Columbia University School of Social Work in 1963).

In 1966, the Carnegie Mansion was named a National Historic Landmark… a great honor however not one that safeguarded the iconic structure from potential demolition.

On October 9, 1967, Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley and Daniel Maggin, the chair of the board of trustees, signed an agreement turning over the collection and library of the museum to the Smithsonian.

The following year, 1969, it was renamed as the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.

The museum, which was the first Smithsonian museum outside of Washington, D.C., moved to its home at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in 1970.

Lisa Taylor on the grand staircase of the Carnegie Mansion in 1976, with a display of flags from the inaugural exhibition MAN transFORMs.

In July of 1978, the museum opened a conservation lab.

In addition to exhibits, the museum hosts design competitions, such as the National Design Awards and offers a wide array of educational programs, including a masters degree program with Parsons The New School for Design since 1982.

Lisa Taylor is appointed director of the museum and serves until 1987.

The museum was renamed the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in 1994.

In 2000, Paul W. Thompson became Director.

Smithsonian Networks, a television channel featuring documentaries and shows related to Smithsonian holdings, was launched in 2007.

In 2008, the museum launched a new effort to renovate and expand the building.

Paul Thompson is appointed director of the museum and serves until 2009.

The mansion was closed to the public in July 2011, to begin the renovation period during which it held exhibitions at the headquarters of the United Nations and on Governor's Island.

Bill Moggridge is appointed director of the museum and serves until his death in 2012.

In June 2014, the museum changed its name from Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

In 2015, the terrace and garden renovations were completed and opened to the public, with design led by Walter Hood.

In 2016 the museum introduced the use of digital pens for visitors.

Nicanor, 41, has been executive director of the Rice Design Alliance at Rice University’s School of Architecture in Houston since 2017 and she spent several years in various roles at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.