Brooklyn studio SO-IL has utilized corbelled brickwork to create a textured entrance to an art gallery in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood.
Located on West 21st Street in Manhattan, the Tina Kim Gallery sits at the centre of an arts district near the High Line park.
The two-storey, century-old brick developing formerly housed the Casey Kaplan gallery, which moved out final year. SO-IL was hired to redesign the ground-level arts venue, with an emphasis on creating a new entryway.
“This venture was a easy transformation of an existing gallery,” stated company co-founder Florian Idenburg. “We wished to make a far more distinctive entry that pulls the public in.”
To attain this objective, the firm recessed the primary door and framed it with staggered bricks – a reinterpretation of the projecting architectural detail known as the corbel.
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The former entrance, produced of frosted white glass, was flush with the sidewalk. But the new composition “gently pulls the street inward, turning the rigid wall into an expressive second,” stated the company.
The five,000-square-foot (470 square metres) gallery is devoted to showcasing modern work by established and emerging artists. It is related with Kukje Gallery in Seoul, for which SO-IL created a standalone building wrapped in metal mesh in 2012.
The interior was stored largely as it was just before – featuring polished concrete flooring, and both white and black walls. SO-IL eliminated one wall and relocated an workplace to the rear of the gallery.
The task was finished final month in the course of New York’s Frieze Artwork Fair. In 2012, SO-IL designed a long lasting, 1,500-foot-long (457 metre) tent for the honest, which is held yearly on Randall’s Island in New York City.
The historic building that contains the Tina Kim Gallery has undergone several modifications in excess of the many years. In accordance to paperwork from the 1930s, the gallery space was after a petrol station.
“The present area is nevertheless one more layer of this ongoing history: re-contextualising pre-present galleries and transforming the entrance to provide an unexpected experience of the acquainted,” said the firm.
A former industrial region, the Chelsea neighbourhood was transformed in the 1980s into the city’s main arts district, with a lot of of its warehouses converted into upscale artwork galleries. The Higher Line – an elevated outdated railway converted into a park – also passes by way of the area.
“This New York City neighbourhood is characterised by several spaces for art,” mentioned the firm. “However, the area’s industrial past is nevertheless prevalent inside of the urban material.”
Prior to moving to its new house, the Tina Kim Gallery was positioned inside of the close by Chelsea Arts Tower, a mixed-use high-rise creating.
The gallery earned focus final yr when it positioned a 5-foot-tall (1.five metre) teddy bear by South Korean artist Gimhongsok in a small Tribeca park. The sculpture, known as Bearlike Development, is produced of bronze but appears to be created of stuffed garbage bags.
Photography is by Jeremy Haik.
Venture credits:
Architect: SO-IL
Team: Florian Idenburg, Jing Liu, Ilias Papageorgiou, Danny Duong, Emma Silverblatt, André Hererro
Architect of record: Andrew Reyniak
Lighting consultant: Fisher Marantz Stone
Contractor: AJ Greenwich Contracting
Door manufacturing: Competitors Architectural Metals
Floor prepare Dezeen
