In October 2022, Frida Escobedo gave the first of a series of talks on “Designing Tomorrow’s Met” in New York. At the museum, her studio had recently won the commission to design the Oscar L.Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art. With a practice based in Mexico City, Escobedo’s first lecture gave patrons a glimpse into her design process, and her design for the Serpentine Pavilion that launched her into the spotlight in 2018.¹ In its 25 year history, only four other women have been selected to design the Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens. The same year, I started my education at Cal Poly Pomona, and Escobedo kept busy as she participated in the exhibition “Tu casa es mi casa” at the Neutra VDL Research House, run by Cal Poly Pomona Environmental Design Students and Faculty.² Earlier this year, Escobedo’s vision for the Tang Wing was unveiled, expertly navigating the museum’s stakeholders, a challenging set of existing conditions, and its users.
Serpentine Pavilion 2018, designed by Frida Escobedo
Serpentine Gallery, London (15 June – 7 October 2018) © Frida Escobedo, Taller de Arquitectura Photography © 2018 Norbert Tukaj
Upon earning the commission for the Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, Frida Escobedo and her team moved their office into The Met. Escobedo describes herself as “nesting” inside The Met, a term that struck me as caring and nurturing, almost maternal. Situated above The Great Hall at the museum’s entrance, she describes the experience of hearing crowds of people below like brown noise, connecting to her user group in a very unique way. In designing the Serpentine Pavilion, a new wing at The Met, or in Columbus, Indiana, Escobedo sets a standard of care for designing in a place that she didn’t grow up in. Early in my career and working on public projects in Denver, I myself am learning how to navigate designing for a public that I didn’t grow up in, or with. In her work, Frida Escobedo maintains her relationship and reverence for Mexico City while caring and nurturing the place she designs for, weaving both home and site-specific context in her projects. At The Met, she explains:
It becomes extremely complex when we’re designing for someone that we don’t know, and that is the case with all public projects. And you can get a sense of how people may interact, you may do interviews, you may do participatory design, you can employ many strategies. But at the end of the day there are these moments of resonance that are quite magical, there's no way of explaining it. Those are moments of connection that, to me, are the most special.¹
This first public lecture also introduced New Yorkers and live viewers to David Breslin, the newly appointed Leonard A. Lauder Curator in Charge for the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. Both Escobedo’s lecture and her discussion with Breslin contain references to writer Édouard Glissant, a 20th century writer from Martinique, discussing his concepts of “mondialité,” or worldiness, and the “right to opacity.” ³ These references, along with Escobedo’s affinity with art objects as precedent, firmly establish her as an architect looking beyond architecture. Both in presentation and design, this seems to be a trait that sets her apart, earning creative trust with her constituents. Breslin and Escobedo discuss the “right to opacity” as the right to have something that may be reserved to have personal meaning, context, and specificity. In this first lecture, she carefully withholds her creative process, and her interview process while working with her new user group. Having just moved into her new office at The Met a month prior, it seems that Escobedo exercises her “right to opacity” in the early stages of her studio’s design process. User @10.6.12 on YouTube hates her for it, four others liked it, making this the top comment under Frida Escobedo’s first talk at The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Comment under Designing Tomorrow’s Met: Frida Escobedo, streamed October 22, 2022
While a single commenter doesn’t represent the masses, it speaks to a larger pattern of casual misogyny and racism in the American architectural landscape, and irreverence for women in the design field. It may be as simple as misspelling an accomplished architect’s last name as “Escobar.” This speaks to a larger phenomenon, where many women in the design field feel pressure to give, and have, everything in order to deserve success: a compelling backstory, credible sources, a glittering portfolio, effortless beauty - but not too much - technical mastery, and social empathy. In contrast, Escobedo’s first conversation at The Met took a “less is more” approach to concept design, with glittering results.
What’s in a Name?
As part of the call for “Designing Tomorrow’s Met,” renovations are also underway of the Ancient Near Eastern and Cypriot Art galleries by Nader Tehrani of NADAAA, who was selected to lead the renovations in 2022, and a complete renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing has been completed and led by Kulapat Yantrasast, founder of WHY. ⁴ Containing the Arts of Africa, Arts of the Ancient Americas, and Arts of Oceania, it seems that we can both time travel and teleport in the newly renovated Michael C. Rockefeller Wing; or, it seems we are harkening back to a practice of mushing non-Western art all together, regardless of time period. The renovation also raises larger questions about repatriation and decolonization at The Met, an institution which was founded in 1870.⁵ It seems that before Yantrasast’s intervention, the Michael C. Rockefeller gallery was even more convoluted, with The Met claiming “the three major collections—spanning five continents and hundreds of cultures—now stand as independent entities.” ⁶ Today, you’ll still have to cross Oceania to view the Arts of the Ancient Americas, both of which contain entirely disparate cultures under convenient umbrella terms. In contrast, the majority of the second floor boasts a “world-famed collection of European paintings,” as well as sculpture and decorative arts, which seem to be carefully separated by both period and medium.
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you might have a wing built and named after you if you've donated enough loot, as is the case with the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing and the Robert Lehman Wing. Cultural institutions, from the museum to the philharmonic, survive on funds from sponsorships, trustees, and donors. The incoming Tang Wing is no exception, elaborating “in May 2024, the Museum announced a fundraising milestone of $550 million in private donations for the wing, demonstrating the extraordinary local, national, and international support for the project from both new and longtime trustees and donors.” ⁷ Oscar L.Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang alone donated $125 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, earning them a wing of their own. In 2023, the Tangs had also donated $40 million to the New York Philharmonic, helping secure Gustavo Dudamel from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. During the pandemic, the proliferation of anti-Chinese sentiment and blatant discrimination compelled The Tangs to step into the spotlight with their philanthropy, previously taking a more private approach. In an interview with the New York Times, Oscar Tang explains that “we feel very much part of America [...] we can set an example, that we earned our right to be part of this society, that we are an integral part of this society.” ⁸ Originally from Shanghai, Tang attended Yale for his undergraduate education, and later graduated from Harvard Business School. He co-founded Reich & Tang in 1970, an asset management firm based in New York. In 1990, Oscar Tang helped establish the Committee of 100, which aims to empower Chinese Americans and encourage relations between China and America. The Committee of 100 was notably founded by architect I.M. Pei, and supported by Chinese Americans including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and YouTube co-founder Steve Chen. His wife, H.M. Agnes Tsu-Tang is a highly educated archaeologist and an art historian, and the two were married in 2013. ⁸ The Tangs have had a significant impact through their support of cultural institutions in New York, both privately and publicly. For many, this philanthropy becomes a gateway, and increases accessibility to the arts.
The Tangs’ philanthropy made Escobedo’s vision for Designing Tomorrow’s Met possible, but institutions’ reliance on donors or private funding has consequences when a donor comes under scrutiny. In December 2021, after continued protest, The Met removed the Sackler family name from dedicated galleries in the North Wing containing the Egyptian Temple of Dendur. In a 2021 statement, Dan Weiss, then-President and CEO of The Met stated: “The Met has been built by the philanthropy of generations of donors – and the Sacklers have been among our most generous supporters. This gracious gesture by the Sacklers aids the Museum in continuing to serve this and future generations. We greatly appreciate it.” ⁹ Meanwhile, Arthur M. Sackler’s website still claims financial commendation for construction of the gallery containing the Temple of Dendur, narrating that:
When Sackler was asked to contribute in 1973, he counted aloud to ten and said “I’ll do it, the decision only took ten seconds”. Sackler invited his brothers to join, and they did. This donation clinched the Temple of Dendur for New York, as other museums wanted it. Now it was taken apart and sent from Alexandria to Brooklyn and then to Fifth Avenue and reassembled. ¹⁰
There is a larger conversation to be had about the practice of disassembling and reassembling ancient monuments into a white-walled institution on another continent, but that’s for another blog. The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharma, who introduced the opioid painkiller OxyContin in the late nineties. By 2015, the Sackler family was included in Forbes annual “America's Richest Families” list.¹¹ In my small world just two years prior, Dan, a family friend, had overdosed on OxyContin. I attended his funeral with his two young daughters. If there’s blame to be had, Purdue Pharma has been held responsible for the proliferation of the opioid crisis in America. In 2019, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the company, alleging that “Purdue’s illegal and misleading marketing and sales practices played a major role in contributing to the nationwide opioid crisis [...] between 1996 and 2002, Purdue more than doubled its sales force and sales rose from approximately $48 million to nearly $2 billion in 2002. These sales were made by representatives falsely promoting OxyContin as a drug that was neither addictive nor subject to withdrawal symptoms, while minimizing its potential for abuse and addiction.” ¹² In Washington D.C., the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art still dedicates its East Building as the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
Designing Tomorrow’s Met
In February 2025, Frida Escobedo took the stage again in front of an eager, buzzing crowd at The Met. ¹³ This lecture gave the public a first look at highly anticipated images of the new Tang Wing.
Exterior rendering of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Tang Wing (view from the southwest corner). Visualization by ©Filippo Bolognese Images, copyright Frida Escobedo Studio
As viewers turn their attention to the proposed design, Frida’s words are deliberate and steady. She reads directly from a script that has been carefully composed, and her architectural proposal reflects the same calculation - there is no fluff, no excess, no media training or tricks of the eye.
Joined again by curator David Breslin, Frida explains that she wants the new Tang Wing to be remembered and appreciated for its spatial experience, rather than its relationship to an identity name. David Breslin identifies this generational shift away from the “starchitect,” and Frida is less subtle in denouncing the idea. In her presentation, she includes the names of eleven project team members, and Frida is third on the list. On the Frida Escobedo Studio website, the project also prominently lists the consultants and experts collaborating on this project, including the visualization team at Filippo Bolognese Images. Frida Escobedo explains that leading a woman-owned firm in Mexico City has its challenges, but she makes it seem effortless. In her design for the Tang Wing, Escobedo looks around, up, below, backwards, and forwards. Frida's precedents range from ancient Peruvian architecture, weaving, sculpture, writing, and her very own Mexico City. She's particularly inspired by the work of female textile artists, naming Annie Albers and Olga de Amaral, and discusses that since these are traditionally considered to be feminine crafts, “it's not considered one of the finest arts.” Frida is an architect who thinks like a neighbor, a writer, an artist, and a journalist, explaining that an architect’s job is to be a “really good listener.” ¹³ Escobedo uses this skill to navigate a complicated list of constituents, and a demanding set of constraints.
Interior rendering of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Tang Wing. Visualization by ©Filippo Bolognese Images, copyright Frida Escobedo Studio
In Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has maxed out their setbacks. Despite this limitation, the new Tang Wing will create 70,000 square feet of new gallery space directly connected to the museum’s existing galleries, while preparing for future possibilities in displaying Modern and Contemporary Art.¹⁴ Escobedo began this project by examining the Comprehensive Architectural Plan for The Met, developed in 1971 by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (a name that still comes up, at least in my office).¹⁶ In her design process, she also discusses working directly with the curators for the Modern and Contemporary Art galleries, as well as the curatorial teams in adjacent galleries. On the first floor, the Tang Wing will connect to the existing Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, and the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Galleries.¹⁵ When I asked coworkers and an old classmate (my token New Yorker) what their visitor experience was like, they all remarked how big, and confusing, visiting The Met can be. The existing layout of The Met is so convoluted that they’ve retained a company called Living Maps, which helps visitors navigate “the world's busiest and most complex places;” using the digital map, visitors can get directions within the museum itself… sometimes.
Interactive digital map of The Met
The Metropolitan Museum of Art also contains a wide range of existing architectural styles. With this in mind, Escobedo explains her thought process in maintaining a symmetrical relationship to the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, identifying an existing pattern of solid and void. In contrast to other Contemporary Art museums - particularly, those in New York - the galleries are not designed to be endlessly flexible. Frida Escobedo and her team expertly define set conditions in the Tang Wing, such as a circulation core, while also allowing for flexibility in the future. ¹³
Exterior rendering of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Visualization by ©Filippo Bolognese Images, copyright Frida Escobedo Studio
On the exterior, the use of limestone creates a module scale that decreases as it moves upwards. At the ground floors, the exterior reflects an urban scale as it faces Central Park. As the sculptural mass moves upwards, the limestone becomes human scaled at the terraces, where visitors to the museum will interact with the material up-close. The design introduces two terrace spaces, one on the fourth floor intended as an exhibition space for commissioned art, and introduces a gathering space on the fifth floor terrace. ¹³
Exterior rendering of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Tang Wing from Central Park. Visualization by ©Filippo Bolognese Images, copyright Frida Escobedo Studio
Escobedo also incorporates the use of a celosia in the design, a Mexican design element that acts as a permeable breeze wall. She is no stranger to this form, as it also appears prominently in her design for the Serpentine Pavilion in London. The use of a celosia in the design allows light to come into the gallery space, but unfortunately, is adjusted to be solid in the New York climate. Escobedo explains that interacting with the celosia requires presence and movement; the changing conditions of sunlight and time change a viewer's experience of the art and gallery. ¹³
Interior rendering of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Visualization by ©Filippo Bolognese Images, copyright Frida Escobedo Studio
Setting the Standard
If you ask an architect what their dream project would be, many would answer “a museum.” At The Met, Frida Escobedo is the first woman to design a new wing in the museum’s history, while simultaneously setting new standards for precedence, contextual relationships, presentation, adjacencies, materiality, and leadership. Breslin and Escobedo reiterate that the project has many years to go. The Met is targeting a 2030 opening date for the Tang Wing, and construction in the current Modern and Contemporary Art galleries is expected to commence in 2026. This massive, public construction project aims to create 4,000 union jobs, and is targeting 30-40% participation of minority and women-owned businesses.¹⁴ Architectural projects exist within larger, complex social and cultural contexts, particularly on public projects. From her lectures at The Met, it’s clear that there is so much to learn from Frida Escobedo’s design and communication process in her studio’s proposal for the new Tang Wing. Though she denounces the idea of the “starchitect,” she seems to be the perfect role model.
Aryana Leland is a designer based in Denver, Colorado. She studied Architecture + Art History at Cal Poly Pomona, and her current interests are Lily Allen’s new album and Rosalía’s new album.
All opinions are my own.
The Met. Designing Tomorrow’s Met: Frida Escobedo. YouTube, October 22, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/live/FLrzCZGi9zY
“Tu Casa Es Mi Casa.” Neutra VDL, September 22, 2018. https://neutra-vdl.org/program/past/tu-casa-es-mi-casa
Glissant, Édouard. Poetics of Relation. London: Penguin Books, 2025.
“Designing Tomorrow’s Met: Nader Tehrani.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 22, 2022. https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/designing-tomorrow-s-met-nader-tehrani
Roche, Daniel Jonas. “Five Continents, One Wing.” The Architect’s Newspaper, May 29, 2025. https://www.archpaper.com/2025/05/reopened-michael-c-rockefeller-wing-why-architecture/
“The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed November 21, 2025. https://www.metmuseum.org/hubs/the-michael-c-rockefeller-wing
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces Funding Milestone for the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 1, 2024. https://www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/tang-wing_fundraising-milestone-2024-news
Pogrebin, Robin. “The Tangs, New Donor Royalty, Step Into the Spotlight.” The New York Times, January 27, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/arts/design/tang-oscar-hsu-tang-agnes-philanthropists.html
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Sackler Families Announce Removal of the Family Name in Dedicated Galleries.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 9, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/the-met-and-sackler-families-announce-removal-of-the-family-name-in-dedicated-galleries-2021-news
“Sackler Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.” Arthur M. Sackler. Accessed November 21, 2025. https://www.sackler.org/sackler-wing-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-new-york-ny/
Sorvino, Chloe. “The Newcomers to America’s Richest Families 2015: Clans behind Oxycontin, Tootsie Roll, Grey Goose.” Forbes, July 28, 2015. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/07/01/the-newcomers-to-americas-richest-families-2015-clans-behind-oxycontin-tootsie-roll-grey-goose/
“Attorney General Becerra Sues Opioid Manufacturer Purdue Pharma for Its Illegal Practices and Role in the Opioid Crisis.” State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General, June 3, 2019. https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-sues-opioid-manufacturer-purdue-pharma-its-illegal
The Met. Designing Tomorrow’s Met: An Evening with Frida Escobedo. YouTube, February 26, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9DJb-LudDY
“The Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed November 21, 2025. https://www.metmuseum.org/hubs/tang-wing
“Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art - The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Frida Escobedo Studio. Accessed November 2025. https://fridaescobedo.com/en/project/ala-de-arte-moderno-y-contemporaneo-oscar-l-tang-y-h-m-agnes-hsu-tang-museo-metropolitano-de-arte/
The Second Century : The Comprehensive Architectural Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collections, 1971. Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, Architects, and Coffey and Levine, Landscape Architects. https://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15324coll10/id/179915