On Wednesday, January 8, the Museum of Modern Art announced plans for expansion of its facilities westward, into several floors of a new tower to be built adjacent to the museum and on the site of the former American Folk Art Museum building. The plans by Diller Scofidio + Renfro include the demolition of the American Folk Art Museum building and reconfiguration of a number of spaces in the existing Museum of Modern Art.

The expansion plan and demolition of the American Folk Art Museum building have provoked considerable controversy. This conversation about the expansion plan will include a presentation of the proposed project by Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art, and Elizabeth Diller, principal of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, followed by a panel discussion of issues raised by the plan, moderated by Reed Kroloff, director of the Cranbrook Academy. Panelists will be Cathleen McGuigan, editor of Architectural Record; architect and preservation theorist Jorge Otero-Pailos; critic and writer Nicolai Ouroussoff; Stephen Rustow, principal of design firm Museoplan; and architectural consultant and writer Karen Stein.