The 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2), three-story facility is devoted to the exhibition and study of the contemporary art collection of Emily Fisher Landau.
The core of the 1,500-work collection is art from 1960 to the 2000s, and contained key works by artists who had shaped the most significant art of the prior 50 years, including Ellsworth Kelly, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Susan Rothenberg, Barbara Kruger, Annette Lemieux, Matthew Barney, Richard Artschwager, Donald Baechler, John Baldessari, Jenny Holzer, Alfredo Jaar, Neil Jenney, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Sherrie Levine, Glenn Ligon, Agnes Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Kiki Smith and Mark Tansey.
Once a parachute-harness factory, the building at 38-27 30th Street in Long Island City was transformed into galleries and a library by the late English architect Max Gordon, designer of the widely admired Saatchi Collection in London, in collaboration with Bill Katz.
The center is appointed with furniture by Warren McArthur, a mid-20th century designer of whose work Ms. Landau has collected some 150 examples.
Mrs Landau was a generous donor to other institutions, notably the Whitney Museum of American Art,[3] where the fourth-floor galleries are named for her, and where she served on the board of trustees.