Situated in the Bowery in the south of Manhattan, the New Museum was erected on a site only 20 m wide. The extensive spatial programme has been distributed vertically over nine levels, creating a 53-metre-high tower that forms an urban landmark. The overall volume is visually reduced by articulating the structure into a series of individual stacked boxes offset from each other. Situated over the museum shop and cafe on the entrance level are the three exhibition storeys. Above these are an education centre, the administration, a multi-purpose hall with terrace and, right at the top, the services storey. The building is wrapped in a homogeneous skin of aluminium mesh, a material with a tough, raw quality like the Bowery itself, yet with a multivalent effect. Depending on the incidence of light, the volume may assume a sculptural appearance or have a textile-like lightness.