Mexico City to the Met: Frida Escobedo’s Supercharged Path to Fame

The 45-year-old architect had mostly designed temporary structures before becoming the first woman to design a wing at the country’s largest art museum.

Sometimes it can be hard to hear what Frida Escobedo is saying. She is reserved, restrained, a self-described introvert.

But that quiet aura should not be mistaken for timidity or deference. Despite the weight of being the first woman to design a wing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 154-year history — and, at 45, relatively young for such a major architectural commission — Escobedo has brought a bold conviction to her vision for the museum’s new Modern and contemporary art galleries, unveiled last month.

“I have a soft personality,” Escobedo said in a recent interview at her West Village design studio. “But I can be very persistent.”

This muted forcefulness seems to have enabled Escobedo to navigate a project that could intimidate even the most experienced architects, given the daunting array of stakeholders with strong opinions — from the Met’s trustees and curators to city government officials (the museum occupies public land) to the protectors of Central Park, into which the wing thrusts.

“She’s very considerate, but also very confident in the propositions that she puts forward,” said David Breslin, the curator in charge of the Met’s Modern and contemporary art department. “It’s an enlightened idea of what leadership actually means.”