Recently the American Folk Art Museum sold its building to her neighbor, the Museum of Modern Art. The folk art museum has had financial trouble since building and then moving to their new location on 53rd street. One might think hiring top architects like Tod Williams and Billie Tsien with avant-garde ideas would increase attendance just as it did at the Bilbao, no? Well, wouldn’t you think that being next to MoMA would help? Not really.

As the New Yorker, the New York Times, and New York magazine squabble over the merits of the building—gem or tomb, you decide—Dan Duray at the Observer actually took the time to consider the issue carefully. Holly Hotchner, the director of the Museum of Art and Design (a former neighbor to MoMA), explained that the competition with the Modern was too great. After all, most people come to 53rd street to see Monet’s water lilies or Van Gogh’s Starry Night. And after two hours even I’m done looking at art for the day.

While those who admire the Folk Art Museum building do so for its beauty, Hotchner discusses her own new building on Columbus Circle. Her museum renovated the old Edward Durell Stone edifice. Conservationists wanted to preserve its iconic design, but Hotcher is a bit more realistic. “A building is not a façade,” she says in criticism of current architectural thinking; “a building is not a skin.” Both the Museum of Art and Design and the American Folk Art Museum are in desirable locations, but one was designed to be monumental while the other took down its imposing façade.

Which adage is truest? Form follows function? Or location, location, location? Perhaps if MoMA turns its new acquisition into a boutique hotel then the two would be married as well as they are by the Museum of Art and Design’s new home.