By Kevin Zimmerman
As it moves into the last full month of a major expansion project, the Queens Museum learned Tuesday it will receive another monetary boost from the city toward paying the bill.
The city Office of Management and Budget approved Borough President Helen Marshall’s request for a little more than $18 million in capital funds for the Flushing Meadows Corona Park institution.
“The Queens Museum of Art has been a crown jewel among our borough’s cultural offerings and this expansion will allow it to become an even more stunning and engaging facility,” Marshall said in a statement.
When it opens this fall, the museum will double its size to 100,000 square feet by moving into the southern half of the New York City Building. It currently occupies just the northern portion of the structure.
The project will also add a 220-foot-long illuminated glass facade and entry plaza on the Grand Central Parkway side of the building, a new entrance and expanded outdoor space on the Flushing Meadows Corona Park side of the facility and a new sky-lit atrium.
To date, the city budget office has approved spending Marshall’s $18.02 million capital request, $19.8 million from the mayor’s office and $6.7 million from the City Council.
Combined with $12.9 million raised in private funds, the museum has been authorized to spend $57.5 million on the project.
