Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 85

i 0 The museum collection include such gems as this 18th-Century bracket and lantern for a totcn or manor entrance An 18th-Century English carved and painted side chair done in the style of Michaelangelo PergolesL Lisa Taylor director of the museum People run when they see me coming she says segment of the public became concerned enough to form a committee to save the collection Since the Collection very well be given to a committee the American Association of Museums was invited to study the situation with the result that it hvited the Smithsonian to act as sponsor The thsonian accepted and even agreed that the col-might stay in New York the center design as king as Cooper-Hewitt operated totally with its own funds '(To save storage costs during its yean in limbo Cooper-Hewitt boarded parts ot its collection at New York museums most of which have at been returned For the Octtaber opening 38 museums will salute Cooper-Hewitt by show-portions of its collection) Enter Lisa Taylor the tint director and the only woman director Ai 43 die is a soft-voiced slip of a woman who underplays her high intensity and her awesome organizational powers In 1969 when she took on the Cooper-Hewitt Job she was program director at the Smithsonian Institution after a stint as membership director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and administrative as-alstant to the Fine Arts Committee Her father Theo von Bergen-Maier was an ar-tect her mother Martina was a painter and Taylor herself has studied all manner of the including calligraphy at Johns Hopkins Unity and the Corcoran School of Art She still a studio but die said the moment some person living in it I want to be a Instead she and her second hus-jahld Bertrand Taylor HI who has Just sold Ms Mat on Ae New York Stock Exchange make films with their friends for at-home relaxation When she arrived in 1960 the museum had only the collection nowhere to house it and little money with which to sustain it The Carnegie Corp offered to lease the museum the Carnegie mansion which had recently been vacated by the Columbia School of Social Work The price was $1 a year with an option to buy at fair market value within 16 years "But I found I could not raise a dime for rented Mrs Taylor said By 1972 the Carnegie Corp had made gift of the' mansion to the museum It was then valued at million now its estimated value is $10 million The building is grand rather than beautiful Hugh Hardy of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates the architects retained to convert the building into a museum said he thinks important because it represents its which is of robber But he hastened to add invented the idea of giving away money" In fact a separate entrance for those seeking money in day has been converted into a cloak room The magisterial front hall and great oak staircase lead to a series of rooms each in a different style and period with repeated touches upstairs of what Hardy has called gum It all has an impressive feeling of space and security and includes a marvelous conservatory still to bo restored On the third floor the walls have been stripped of what Hardy ref era to as paint bestowed upon them by Columbia and already the reference library is being installed The Neo-Georgian facade makes its point somewhat heavily despite the historic landmarks designation and its real riches are in the cellar In a day when no one knew about eir-oort-ditioning Carnegie devised a system using cheesecloth He had his own artesian well an electrical generator coal furnaces serviced by a tiny indoor railroad and all manner of iron and brass gauges and dials Both Hardy and Mrs Taylor say they would like the nether regions to be restored some day as a design technology museum But that will take more money Already Mrs Taylor and the many friends have managed to raise about $6 million for its opening Of that $2 million went toward renovation and a portion has been set aside for opera- Continued on next page cn.