9-01 33^rd Road
c. 1920s; addition: Isamu Noguchi, 1985

The Noguchi Museum is set within a converted photo-engraving plant dating to the 1920s, and connected to an additional building and interior garden designed by Isamu Noguchi himself. Noguchi, a renowned Japanese-American sculptor known for fusing Modernism with Japanese influences, envisioned the museum as not only a permanent home for his work, but as a work of art in itself. Moving to a small brick building across from his future museum in 1961, Noguchi was one of the pioneering artists that helped to establish Long Island City’s cultural community.  The two-story industrial building, with its cement floors and exposed ceiling beams, contrasts with the artist’s stone, metal and wood sculptures. Originally housed in two separate buildings, the museum underwent a massive renovation in 2001-04 that connected the historic red brick building to its modern concrete block neighbor to create a more unified space for the 2,383-piece collection.