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On Thursday, downtown Manhattan will see a welcome, and lately all-too-rare, sight. On that day, a construction crew will actually break ground for a new building, the longanticipated east wing of the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
The decision to proceed with the 70,000-square-foot, $60 million addition is a powerful statement. The museum itself, located in Battery Park City, reopened only three weeks ago, after being choked with debris from the World Trade Center's collapse.
"Our message of renewal after tragedy and hope for the future has always been a core message of the museum," says David Marwell, the museum's director. "That message takes on a very important new meaning now."
A few months back, the Museurn of Jewish Heritage was just one on a long list of cultural institutions planning costly expansions. Now it counts itself among the luckiest. Unlike some other museums and arts organizations, it has its funding firmly in place and it soon will have its shovels in the ground.
Never before has timing been so important. A handful of cultural institutions-including the Museum of Modern Art and the New York Hall of Science-are so far along with their expansion projects that virtually nothing can derail them. Others that are only in the early stages of planning for new projects, such as Lincoln Center and the Guggenheim, face a far bleaker future.
"If they're in the middle of building or have a hole in the ground, then the city and everyone...