The New-York Historical Society, the city’s oldest museum, has commissioned Czech architect Eva Jiricná to create a new permanent gallery to house its 100-strong collection of Tiffany stained glass lamps.

Eva Jiricná Architects Limited (EJAL) were initially appointed by the museum to redevelop the masterplan of its fourth level, which houses a collection of art, furniture and artefacts related to New York. They were then commissioned to design the museum’s new Tiffany Lamps and Skylight Galleries.

The firm said that its Tiffany gallery will be organised on two levels with the upper level floating freely in the space defined by existing framework in the roof. The floors will be linked by one of Jiricná’s famed glass staircases.

Freestanding curved glass elements on the lower level will surround and protect the lamps, making them viewable from almost all angles, and creating a colourful floating landscape. The light will be dimmed and tinted blue to emulate a 1920s interior night setting.

The company’s Skylight Gallery will feature edge-lit glass blades suspended from the ceiling, creating “an illuminated atmosphere during the evening but allowing the light of the skylight above to penetrate as well as glimpses of the sky.” The multi-functional space will be used for fundraising events, dinners and lectures.

The New-York Historical Society is also developing a new Center for the Study of Women’s History. This exhibition hall, the first of its kind in the US, will feature theatre space for teaching workshops, small conference gatherings and video installations on the achievements and history of women.

Announcing the new galleries, which are scheduled to open to the public in early 2017, Pam B Schafler, chair of the board of the New-York Historical Society, said: “The renovated, refurbished, and reimagined fourth floor will be a transformative next chapter in the extraordinary and ever-expanding story of the New-York Historical Society.”

According to the museum, the Tiffany collection will explore the history of the famous studio and the significant impact the advent of electricity had on the lives of Americans at the turn of the century. Exhibits will include Tiffany's Wisteria lamp, created in 1901, made with 2,000 pieces of coloured glass to emulate a flower in bloom.

Jiricná has a number of projects in the pipeline. In March, she was chosen by the Arendon Development Company to work alongside the architecture firms John Pawson and Richard Meier on Oaks Prague – a new mixed-use scheme in the Czech Republic. That development will see a hotel, spa, restaurant and club house built into an existing 19th-century chateau.