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Interior, staircase going up to second level; The museum was founded in 1956 by the American Craft Council as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts; it was renamed in 2002 and in 2008, moved to 2 Columbus Circle. The new tenant radically altered the building's original design (1964) by Edward Durell Stone, which touched off a preservation battle. The museum's redesign was developed by Brad Cloepfil and his Portland, Oregon-based firm Allied Works Architecture and replaced the original white Vermont marble with a glazed terra-cotta (nacreous ceramic) and glass facade. Stone's signature elements like the "lollypop" shaped piers are still there, but boxed in with fritted glass. The interior was opened up and new slots in the building allow more light. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 8/5/2013)