Daily News from New York, New York • 539

I Built In 1901 for Andrew Carnegie, this 64-room neo-Georgian mansion on Fifth Ave. at 9 lit St. opens today as the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design, housing a fascinating collection of decorative arts, I yjN HI ffP i I men ess cc rliMilrf" a I Home is where the (decorative) art is A collection of tole work is displayed in a painted cabinet (above). The museum's library It a wonderful information source for students and designers who can examine plans and drawings such as Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau's 16th century rendering of the Chateau da Verneuil (left). -If Photos courtesy of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design Smithsonian Institution.

1 By ROSE GILBERT SOME OF the most beautiful objects ever made by man will be at your fingertips, starting today. Relocated in the handsome Andrew Carnegie mansion, the Cooper-Hewitt museum la opening its doors to unveil a collection of decorative arts so important it'i been taken under the wing of the Smithsonian Institution as its National Museum of Design. Students, interior designers, anyone with an interest in man's attempts to beautify his environment, will now have direct access to more than 100,000 historic and contemporary objects from all over the world. There's furniture, of course, and fabrics, wallpapers, ceramics and glass, jewelry, drawings and prints the collections are so vast and so rich it takes superlatives to describe them. Largest collection For example, the Cooper-Hewitt has the largest collection of drawings in the United States, some 30,000 of them, covering every facet of design and ornament, from the plans of Grand Central Station to theater scenery to garden landscapes.

It also boasts the largest collection of wallpapers in the country, 6,000 examples that span the development of wall coverings from tooled leather hangings to present-day plastics. All of it repeat, all will be available for close-up study and admiration by the general public. In fact, that's the whole point of the museum, as its attractive, soft-spoken director, Lisa Taylor, sees it: "We want to get the public more involved to create a greater awareness of design on every After all, we must make design decisions every time we arrange our furniture or buy clothes," she says. To help sharpen such awareness, the museum will stage an ever-changing series of what Mrs. calls "learning to look" shows set up amid the splendor of the mansion's first two Carousel of slides More serious visitors will head for the library and archive? on the third floor.

Here, instead of only books, you can read the world's design history in the real article. For example, you tell the librarians what you want to see say, 18th century embroidery and youll be given a carousel of slides showing what's in the collection. If you want a closer look at the real thing, a curator will lead you to it, unroll the example, and stand by while you scrutinize. Lest you think the museum a sombre, scholarly place, keep your eye on the New York subway system. One project upcoming calls for underground exhibits in some five stations around the city.

Another, already in the works, has leading American interior designers reminiscing into a tape recorder about such things as their favorite rooms. Billy Baldwia is already cloistered with a micio-phone; others will soon take their turns. And if you missed it the first time, you might be able to catch a rerun of your favorite TV commercial when the museum's" fiew theater coin-' mercials and other outstanding examples of modern-day advertising and package designs are being added to the collections. "We're out to teach people to appreciate good design wherever they see it," Mrs. Taylor explains.

And speaking of teaching, the museum is offering an intriguing series of classes lectures, craft workshops, study tours, children's programs. You can tour the habitats of top New York interior designers, learn to sculpt bread, spend a weekend at the Smithsonian in Washington, or sign up for Monday afternoon talks on how to collect antiques. You get cocktails and luncheon with that one for $120; nonmem-btrs, (memberships start at $15 for students; whole families can join for $40). Begins Oct. 18 Contact the museum for the entire class schedule time is a factor.

Enrollment is limited, and they begin Oct. 18. Otherwise, don't rush up expecting everything to be operating full-tilt, snags in the mansion's restoration have thrown the schedule off, and much of the collection is still quartered next door at the Miller house, where Carnegie's daughter lived," which will become an active part of the museum once it's renovated. Some of the furniture, in fact, is still on loan to other museums, or in storage in Brooklyn. Cooper-Hewitt itself had been in somewhat of a limbo since 1963, when it was squeezed out of the Cooper Union School, where it had been since its birth in 1897.

The reopening, no matter how far it is from perfection, is cause for celebration among loyers; of things- joi A Silk and metallic woven fabric from the 1690s is just one example of the museum's cqUection of decorative materials..