In early 2025, the Rye Art Center (RAC) went before the city council to discuss a major campus expansion in the wake of one of its major benefactors, Robert Wiener, gifting the nonprofit the adjacent two acre property at 25 Milton Road. Neighbors, including the 130-odd apartment owners at Blind Brook Lodge, expressed concern about a large second building, parking and increased traffic along an already busy stretch of Milton Road.
Fast forward to the City Council meeting Wednesday evening, October 21, 2026 where RAC trustee Eric Soufer, with some help from Rye Mayor Josh Nathan, floated a new plan: push the current RAC and proposed new building closer together (“connected”), put the parking in the back (not visibile from Milton Road), reduce to proposed enteries to the property from four to one, and gift the 25 Milton Road property to the City of Rye – with the intention to preserve most of that property as passive green space.
“I don’t know that you abandoned the application,” said Rye Mayor Josh Nathan, providing context to the RAC’s new thinking. “You just went away and gave it a big rethink. At the same time, we all gave it a rethink here at the staff level and at the council level, and thought, how do we make sure that this very important institution in Rye can do what it wants to do, at the same time do it in a way that does not negatively impact its immediate neighbors, and also do it in a way where everyone in town is very proud of what becomes the next iteration of the art center.”
“The plan is now to build this new structure much closer to the existing building and connect it to with some kind of walkway,” said RAC trustee Eric Soufer. “Again, this is still in the design phase, but the plan now is to move much much closer by moving it closer to the existing building, with is 51[Milton].”
We are exploring gifting of the property at 25 Milton, that would of course be a very substantial gift, reflecting our commitment to working with the City and the community of giving that property to the city, which we believe will not only serve the community better, but will allow us to collaborate very closely with the city and build something that is reflective of the community’s concerns and needs,” said Soufer.
“We realized at the City level that we could solve the problem if we collaborated with the art center and rethought about the [Rye Recreation] park, and they realized the same thing,” continued Mayor Nathan after the RAC’s presentation. “And that’s the idea of taking the donated space that was donated to the art center and making it a part of the park, and then allowing the art center to build its addition in what is city-owned parkland property.”
Officials said they were planning another meeting for some time in December. They expect a more detailed plan to be available and will also provide an opportunity for public comment.
Watch the RAC expansion discussion at Rye City Council:
