New York's Park Avenue Armory to Get Recital/Art Room

Good news for history (and art) buffs in New York: The New York Times is reporting that the Park Avenue Armory’s Board of Officers Room will be restored by the architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron with a $15 million gift from the Thompson Family Foundation.

The Officers Room, one of the few remaining interiors by Herter Brothers—most recently used as a coat-check space for art fairs—will hold recitals, other small performances and art installations. Work will begin in the next few weeks and is to be completed in the fall of 2013.

The revitalization is part of a $200 million multiyear project by Herzog & de Meuron to recapture the armory’s original design while transforming it into a new cultural institution.