BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Albright-Knox Art Gallery revealed preliminary plans for a new 29,000 square-foot building on its campus Monday night.

The new will serve as a special exhibit space and will open at the same time the museum takes on a new name: Buffalo Albright Knox Gundlach Art Museum.

Museum Director Janne Sirén says it will also allow the gallery to triple or quadruple the number of masterpieces from the Albright-Knox's collection on display at any given time.

"Our objective is to reach 48,000 square-feet net of prime exhibition space. That puts us in the same level as the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museum in New York City," Sirén said.

The proposed building has large windows all the way around, allowing people to have a great view of Delaware Park, but Sirén says a big part of the design was allowing people to see inside.

"I think OMA and Shohei Shigematsu's objectives was really to create a green campus, but also a campus that is inviting in terms of transparency, so when you are walking on Elmwood Avenue, you actually see into the museum," Sirén said.

In addition to the new building, Sirén says they will build a new parking ramp and do restoration work on the existing buildings.

The museum will also turn its existing parking lot into a landscaped green space, and will have an underground parking lot.

"We are so proud of the fact that, at the end of schematic design, that we are actually making the campus greener, and the North Building is sited on top of what is today a parking lot. So, nobody's going to miss that piece of blacktop going away," Sirén said.

Sirén says if they stay on schedule, they will break ground in 2019, and the new Buffalo Albright Knox Gundlach Art Museum will open in the fall of 2021.