Asia Society and Museum

725 Park Avenue | also 101 East 70th Street, 721 Park Avenue | Upper East Side | built 1979

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1956

    John D. Rockefeller 3rd founds the Asia Society, first housed in Philip Johnson's Asia House

    John D. Rockefeller 3rd founded the Asia Society in 1956 to explain Asia to Americans. Its first home was Asia House, a seven-story glass and steel building by Philip Johnson at 112 East 64th Street. The society's first exhibition, drawn from American collections of Asian art, opened there on January 7, 1960.

    Source: apollo-magazine.com

  2. 1974

    Rockefeller gives some 300 objects of Asian art, the core of the museum's collection

    In 1974 John D. Rockefeller 3rd donated about 300 pieces of Asian art, valued at ten to fifteen million dollars, to the society. He and his wife Blanchette Rockefeller added more objects in 1978. These gifts remain the base of the permanent collection shown at the Park Avenue building, which includes Chinese ceramics of the Song and Ming periods.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1979

    Rockefeller's collection passes to the Asia Society, with money for a new headquarters

    John D. Rockefeller 3rd died in a car accident in July 1978, and his collection of Asian art became part of the Asia Society in 1979. The promised gift also carried funding for a purpose-built home. That building rose at Park Avenue and East 70th Street to a design by Edward Larrabee Barnes.

    Source: apollo-magazine.com

  4. 1981

    The Asia Society opens its purpose-built headquarters at Park Avenue and East 70th Street

    Rockefeller died in July 1978, and his promised gift included funding for a new purpose-built home for the collection. Edward Larrabee Barnes designed the red granite building, which opened in 1981, the society's 25th anniversary year. It holds a museum, an auditorium, offices and a conference venue.

    Source: apollo-magazine.com

  5. 1981

    Edward Larrabee Barnes sets a red granite facade on Park Avenue and steps it back from 70th Street

    Barnes gave the building a firm granite front to continue the line of Park Avenue, while a terraced garden buffers the East 70th Street side from the older houses on the block. A semicircular window on the top story and shifts in the granite's color and finish were meant to evoke Asian cultures. Paul Goldberger of The New York Times praised the interiors and overall shape but found the facade less successful.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1999

    The Asia Society closes its headquarters for 18 months and borrows Christie's old offices

    In 1999 the society shut the Park Avenue building for a year and a half while new interiors by Bartholomew Voorsanger were built. While the building was shut, the society worked out of Christie's former Manhattan offices on 59th Street.

    “In 1999, it was closed for 18 months so that new interiors, designed by Bartholomew Voorsanger, could be built.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2001

    Bartholomew Voorsanger redoes the interiors, adding a 24-foot atrium and doubling gallery space

    In 1999 the building closed for 18 months so Bartholomew Voorsanger could rebuild its interiors, and the society worked from former Christie's offices on 59th Street in the meantime. The renovation, completed in 2001, added a 24-foot-high atrium and cafe and doubled the exhibition space of the four public galleries. It also made room for special shows alongside the Rockefeller collection.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2007

    The museum begins actively collecting contemporary Asian art

    Although its holdings began with traditional objects from the Rockefeller gifts, the Asia Society launched an initiative in 2007 to collect contemporary Asian art as well. The Park Avenue galleries now show traditional, modern and contemporary work, and the building also hosts film screenings, literary events and performances.

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2021

    The first Asia Society Triennial, We Do Not Dream Alone, is on view at the museum through June

    The museum's contribution to the first-ever Asia Society Triennial ran through June 27, 2021, with other pieces shown in Times Square, on the Park Avenue Malls at East 70th Street, and at the New-York Historical Society. Around 40 artists took part. The title comes from Yoko Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit, and the twin sisters known as Mountain River Jump! showed a video installation of divination cards illustrating Chinese animal idioms.

    Source: nyctourism.com

  10. 2026

    March 18

    A 70th-anniversary show of 70 objects from the permanent collection opens at the museum

    To mark the society's 70th anniversary, the museum opened Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon on March 18, 2026, running to January 2027. It shows 70 objects from the permanent collection, pairing Buddhist and Hindu sculpture with ceramics and metalwork from China, Korea and Japan. The works came home after a national tour that began at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2020.

    Source: apollo-magazine.com

Further reading

Nearby

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