The New York Times is reporting that MoMA has decided to disassemble the white bronze facade of the American Folk Art Museum building, designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. A controversial expansion plan, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, calls for the demolition of the building to make way for a new “art bay” and circulation to new galleries in an adjacent tower designed by Jean Nouvel.

MoMA director Glen Lowry told the Times, “We will take the facade down, piece by piece, and we will store it. We have made no decision about what happens subsequently, other than the fact that we’ll have it and it will be preserved.”

The move is a significant change by the Modern, which has been generally dismissive of the building’s architectural significance. In an additional interview, Liz Diller objected to the idea that the bronze facade should be reattached to the expanded MoMA on 53rd street, calling that approach a “token gesture to a history.” She added: “We think of buildings synthetically. Facades and buildings and their organization, their logic, are tied entirely together.”