After closing for several months, the MoMA Design Store in NYC’s SoHo has reopened to the public with a fresh design and a fresh take on museum-affiliated retailing. Since its original opening in 2001, the Spring Street store has acted as both an entry point to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and a shopping destination in its own right; however, while the store’s art-inspired products always stood out, the store itself tended toward basic.
“The products are amazing, but the store maybe was left less differentiated, and that’s really a gap that we’re looking to fill,” explained Jesse Goldstine, Chief Retail Officer at MoMA in this week’s episode of the Retail Remix podcast. “We’re trying to leapfrog over just addressing the issue and think about how we can be storytellers moving into the future. That’s the reason, for example, for reducing the number of SKUs in the store — we used to have SKUs that we were all so proud of, we thought they were amazing, but we literally didn’t have the space in the store to tell the story of those products. Now we’re really making the storytelling around products front and center, so when [come in] you’ll feel like the store is worthy of the products inside.”
Drawing on Design Legacies
In addition to reducing the store’s SKU count, the fully redesigned space emphasizes accessibility, storytelling and good design as catalysts for learning and creativity. Largely untouched since it first opened nearly 25 years ago, the landmarked 19th-century building has undergone a top-to-bottom transformation, orchestrated by Peterson Rich Office.
Since its inception, the MoMA Design Store has been deeply informed by the Museum’s Department of Architecture & Design — the first of its kind, established in 1932. That relationship remains foundational, shaping everything from the store’s curator-approved product assortment to its storytelling and staff training.
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Original columns, expansive windows and 19th-century masonry were carefully restored. Custom vitrines, perforated blue metal displays and contemporary lighting now guide visitors through a fluid, experiential layout. The Spring Street entrance was also returned to its original 1880s location in a bid to improve circulation and offer a more welcoming arrival experience.
Bringing the Museum to the Store
Bringing more art into the store is also central to the redesign. This is facilitated through a new collaboration with Modern Mural, which will bring contemporary art into the space through a rotating program of works.
For the debut of this project, LOVE NYC by New York-based artist Nina Chanel Abney was selected. Visible from the new Spring Street entrance, the mural employs Abney’s signature paper cut-out technique, which takes individual elements that she then arranges into a site-specific composition. Motifs include cobblestones, street names and subway lines, interspersed with references to works from the MoMA collection, including Salvador Dalí’s melting clock draped over a tree and Marcel Duchamp’s readymade bicycle wheel.
“We’re thrilled to debut this original work by Nina Chanel Abney in a space accessible to all,” said Samantha Friedman, Curator for the Department of Drawings and Prints at MoMA in a statement. “Through a dynamic visual language, she merges art and the everyday — the museum and the city — with energy, humor and sophistication.”
A central fixture in the store also features objects from MoMA’s collection, offering a tactile, shoppable link to the museum.
A Refined Assortment to Enable Deeper Storytelling
And as Goldstine discussed on Retail Remix, the store’s assortment also has been thoughtfully edited, with fewer products to facilitate richer narratives and a sharper point of view. Every item is considered through a curatorial lens, and each purchase supports MoMA’s exhibitions, conservation efforts and educational initiatives.
Notable launches at the store’s reopening include:
- A collaboration between the Finnish designers Artek and Marimekko featuring Artek’s Aalto furniture inlaid with Marimekko patterns;
- The U.S. debut of Parisian men’s clean and sustainable skincare brand Horace, also expanding the definition of good design into the personal care space, with branded bar and hand soaps exclusively created for MoMA;
- Exclusive new editions of longtime MoMA Design Store partner IZIPIZI’s bestselling sunglasses and readers in a signature blue hue that echoes the store’s new fixtures; and
- A capsule line of apparel and home goods from Only NY featuring Micah Belamarich’s Community of New York illustration, reinterpreting the city through playful, local design.
The MoMA Design Store is now open to the public. To hear more about the store’s redesign as well as the museum’s larger philosophy and strategy around retail — which includes licensed products, additional stores across NYC and in Japan, and a thriving ecommerce operation — tune in to this week’s episode of Retail Remix below or anywhere you get your podcasts.
