The first major American museum to collect art by living artists within a year of its making; the first to regularly include video and performance-based art on its calendar; and known for its risk-taking selections of new art for the Whitney Biennial, the Whitney Museum of American Art pulled out all the stops at the groundbreaking ceremony for its new building in the Meatpacking District yesterday. The event was hosted by the Whitney’s director, Adam D. Weinberg, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who said, “This might be the most groundbreaking groundbreaking you’ve ever seen.”

Left to right: Architect Renzo Piano with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the STREB Extreme Action Company; the Whitney’s director, Adam D. Weinberg. Photos: Peggy Roalf.

After a nearly decade-long struggle to increase its square footage while appeasing the Landmarks Commission regarding the building’s design, the Whitney Museum of American Art is finally on its way to having a new home. Not only does it have the support of its new neighbors, from Community Board 2 to the Meatpackers Association, it will have a world-class building designed by Renzo Piano that will be double the size of the Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue at 75th Street. An added plus is its location adjacent to the High Line Park, which brought three million visitors to the area in its first year.

 “Today, we begin to create the Whitney of the future, an aspirational space where contemporary artists can realize their visions and audiences can connect deeply with art,” Mr. Weinberg said.

Following remarks by museum and city officials, and a poetic presentation of an architectural model of the building by Renzo Piano, the stage was taken over by the STREB Extreme Action Company, a Brooklyn-based performance group headed by Elizabeth Streb, who has been called the Evel Knievel of dance. Costumed in a mix of circus and military garb, the dancers went through a brief drill, with some of them diving through window-like frames suspended from the ceiling as Elizabeth Streb, wearing a helmet, was pummeled by a downpour of rubble from above. Surrounded by the dancers, the mayor, the director, and the architect then broke ground through the rubble, wielding red-handled shovels.

The new Whitney will have the city’s largest column-free exhibition space for contemporary art and a free-admission ground floor with a café and museum store. While it still must raise roughly $2 million of the project’s $720 million budget, the museum has four years in which to hold fundraising events. Judging from the wealthy young crowd that attended the groundbreaking, and the large sum it raised at last week’s gala, the new Whitney is likely to face opening day well ahead of the game.

For now, the museum presents Designing the Whitney of the Future, a show of renderings and a model for the new building’s design, along with a video fly-through of the site. The Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue at 75^th Street, NY, NY. On Friday, Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools opens, including video games, single channel video, performance, music composition, sculpture, and works on paper. The exhibition, which occupies the museum’s entire fourth floor, is Arcangel’s first major New York museum show.

The High Line Park will open a new section from 20^th Street to 30^th Street, including The Lot at 30^th Street, which will include food trucks and other amenities for visitors.