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WHEN HOLLY HOTCHNER became director of the Museum of Arts and Design 12 years ago, the tiny cultural institution was nearly bankrupt. Formerly known as the American Craft Museum, it lacked both visitors and deep-pocketed donors because so few people knew about it.
Today, the museum is anything but obscure.
When it opens on Sept. 27 in a new location, a gleaming nine-story building at 2 Columbus Circle, the unveiling will be one of the biggest cultural events in the city this fall.
"There were so many moments along the way where you just wonder how you're going to actually achieve what you set out to do," says Ms. Hotchner. "To sit here and think this is actually accomplished is magical; it's unreal."
To be sure, the journey was not always a smooth one. The museum's unveiling follows years of delays due to lawsuits brought by prominent preservationists. Ultimately unsuccessful, the opponents objected to the museum's plans to renovate the city-owned 1964 "lollipop" building, designed by the late architect Edward Durell Stone.
In 2002, MAD, as the museum is called, won the bid to purchase and renovate the one-time headquarters for the city's department of cultural affairs, vaulting the small-scale institution onto the playing field of big-time donors and paving the way to its turnaround...