MoMA Design and Book Store

Profile

Decades before Design Within Reach and Moss, there was the MoMA Store, first sited at a small sales desk in the museum's lobby in 1939 and now grown to include an outpost some 50 blocks south. All three stores within the museum are designed by Richard Gluckman; at the 11 W. 53rd Street flagship, MoMA Books overlooks the main lobby, a smaller shop on the sixth floor is devoted to temporary exhibitions, and the first-floor space, at nearly 6,000 square feet, offers a collection as painstakingly curated as the museum's artworks. Inventory includes items that complement MoMA's collection (print reproductions, retrospective coffee-table books) alongside beautiful, useful home décor, like oddly shaped table lamps, super-strong magnets, and kitchen gadgets by OXO. Save for the obligatory MoMA-emblazoned T-shirts and paperweights, the shop could almost be mistaken for a design emporium selling stylized versions of everything domestic, from doorstops to spatulas. But lest you MoMentarily forget this is indeed a world class institutional gift shop, merchandise is displayed against stark white walls, with exhibition-style placards that bear titles and brief description. — Kate Jacobs

The museum shop’s registry program offers quirky housewares like glazed-ceramic teaspoons and rainbow chopstick sets.

Museum members get 10 percent off at the stores; on special member shopping days, four weekends a year, the discount is doubled to 20 percent.