After outgrowing the former P.S. 23 schoolhouse at 70 Mulberry Street, in 2009 MOCA moved into its new home at 215 Centre Street, an old auto garage redesigned by the renowned architect Maya Lin. Lin is best known for her work designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. at the age of 21, while still an undergraduate at Yale University. Her work was chosen as the winner out of 1,421 entries in an anonymous competition held by the U.S. Congress, beating out the entry of her own professor, who had graded her proposal with a B. Her nontraditional, somber design – a dark angle of a wall sunken into the earth listing the veterans’ names chronologically – created extreme controversy, and when it was revealed that the winning designer was a young Chinese American woman, critics used everything from Lin’s age to her ethnicity to try to discredit her entry. Even though Lin’s design was chosensolely on its merit, she was forced to appear before Congress to defend her artistic choices. Ultimately, Lin’s design was built on the compromise that another more “traditional” monument featuring a group of soldiers holding guns was erected nearby, a personal blow to Lin’s vision.
Lin has gone on to create other well-known monuments such as the Civil Rights Monument in Montgomery, Alabama and the Women’s Table at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. A member of the National Women’s Hall of Fame, Lin received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. Currently, Lin focuses on creating installations that bring awareness to the environment.
2009年，MOCA从茂比利街70号第23公共小学的原校址扩张并搬迁至中央街215号的新馆址，这里原本是一个自动车库，后来由著名建筑师林璎重新设计成博物馆。林璎最为知名的作品是她在21岁时设计的位于华盛顿特区的越战纪念碑，当时她还在耶鲁大学读本科。她的作品从1421件匿名参赛作品中胜出，赢得了这场由美国国会举办的方案征集设计竞赛，而当年她自己的教授，却只给了她这个设计提案一个B。她的非传统的、深沉的设计，将深色的 V形纪念碑 墙沉入地下，上面按时间顺序列出阵亡军人的名字，造成了极大的争议。当大家发现这个获胜的设计者是一名年轻的美国华裔女性时，批评家们利用了一切可以利用的理由，从她的年龄到她的种族，试图取消她的获奖资格。尽管林璎的作品是完全凭实力在比赛中被选出的，但她还是被迫现身于国会来捍卫自己的作品。最终，林璎的作品得以建造实现，却是以一种妥协的方式——在她设计的纪念碑附近再建造了一座更为“传统”的纪念碑——一组拿着枪的越战士兵，这是对林璎设计思想的个人打击。
后来，林璎又继续设计建造了其它知名的纪念碑，比如位于阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利的民权运动纪念碑和位于康涅狄格州纽黑文耶鲁大学的妇女之桌等。作为全美国女性名人堂成员之一，林璎在2016年获得了总统自由勋章。目前，林璎专注于创作提高环保意识的设计作品。
Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.
2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年，为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献， MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories！ 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑，全国线上接力，以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事，敬请大家持续关注， 讲出华人自己的故事，回顾过去，立足现在，展望未来，共同书写美国历史，使之更加充实完整。