The Folk Art Museum building's stair contained niches for objects in the collection and led visitors through the narrow structure.

Next month, RECORD will present projects by architects who give new life to old buildings through thoughtful renovation or adaptive reuse. Unfortunately, that kind of creative thinking wasn't brought to bear to save the acclaimed former home of the American Folk Art Museum from demolition. Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, and opened in late 2001, this little gem in Midtown Manhattan—six stories high and only 40 feet wide, echoing the scale of the townhouses that once lined the block—is in the way of a planned expansion of its mega-neighbor, the Museum of Modern Art. To bail out the debt-burdened American Folk Art Museum in 2011, MoMA bought the building, with its tough and stunning facade of bronze panels—and then announced, last April, that it would tear it down. The news unleashed a firestorm of outrage from critics and design fans. MoMA officials, apparently taken by surprise, backed off—temporarily—and hired Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) to study how the museum could expand and possibly incorporate the Folk Art building into its future plans.