The Andy Warhol Museum is one of the most popular museums in the United States. Currently located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the artist’s hometown, the museum has a large and diverse audience thus it made sense for the museum to be apart of a development project that was being planned in New York. However the 6-acres on the Lower East Side in New York that they were negotiating to branch out to has now been terminated, with Eric Shiner, director of The Warhol, saying in a statement, “The Andy Warhol Museum, which had been exploring its participation in the Essex Crossing development in lower Manhattan, has determined that it will not proceed with the project. Despite the efforts of both the museum and the developers, an internal study of business and other operational considerations led the museum to this decision.”
All the more intriguing is the fact that Delancey Street Associates, a consortium of three developers, was to pay for the cost of building the museum branch, which had a target opening date of 2017. The location itself was close to Warhol personally as his first apartment was in Lower Manhattan on St. Mark's Place. Thus making the decision to not expand quite an interesting one. However museums are faced with challenges that many institutions and businesses do not have to recognize and although they have no plans for a branch as of now, there could always be one in the future.