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The Asia Society in New York City was founded by John D. Rockefeller 3rd in 1956, at what was then called Asia House on East Sixty-fourth Street It was Rockefeller's idea that the society should be a center in North America where Asian art, economics, politics, and society would be discussed and debated, thereby improving understanding and promoting interchange between East and West At his death in 1978 he bequeathed the building and his collection of Asian art to the society. The collection went on view in a building on Park Avenue designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and completed in in 1981.
New York City is the society's world headquarters. Regional centers are located in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Melbourne, Australia, Seattle, Shanghai, San Francisco, and Manila. Over the years the exhibition program in New York City has expanded along with the number of visitors. The society's administrators and the board decided to close the Park Avenue building in 2000 for a complete renovation. The New York architect Bartholomew Voorsanger of Voorsanger and Associates Architects created the master plan and oversaw the renovation of the building, using materials evocative of Asia--bamboo floors, for example.
When the renewed building opens on October 13, the most obvious change for former visitors will be the lobby, which has been opened up, enclosed in glass, and lit by a skylight. In addition, the museum store has doubled in size; a curving staircase now connects all of the floors open to the public, from the auditorium to the three floors of gallery space; and a permanent gallery created to house selections from the Rockefeller Collection can be found on the third floor. In all, four thousand square feet have been added to the public space.
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Source: HighBeam Research, Asia Society renovates.(New York City)(Brief Article)