|
Ethan Cohen Fine Arts Gallery
New York City
Dean/Wolf Architects
Flexibility allows a range of functions
for this premier Asian art gallery
© Peter Aaron/Esto |
|
For more photos click on 'photos
& drawings' above.
To see the people and products
behind this project click on 'people & products.'
|
With this new design, Ethan Cohen Fine
Arts, the premier Contemporary Asian Art Gallery in New York
City, has a dual-function gallery that changes from a space
of display to a fluid space for performances, benefits, and
art openings. To allow for continuous transformation, the
gallery is conceived of as three spaces linked by two extended
thresholds. The sound of the footstep on steel flooring, the
concealing of vision by layers of translucent glass, and the
spatial transformation of the pivoting panels define the thresholds.
The three spaces operate in two distinct
ways: as a display gallery with clearly delineated boundaries
and disjunctive thresholds; and as a dynamic sequence of fluid
space with delayed thresholds. In both functions, the design
strength of the thresholds challenges the conventional notion
of gallery as a neutral condition.
When functioning as a display gallery,
there are three discrete gallery spaces. Creating a link to
the gritty street culture of Walker Street, the steel threshold
literally extends the material and presence of the cast iron
façade into the reception space of the gallery. The
first of the glass veils ends this zone, capturing reflections
of the street that appear at the entry to the main gallery.
This threshold also links the lower gallery to the street
and entry through reflection and suspended displays. The third
gallery, a double-height private viewing gallery, is separated
by pivoting doors on both levels.
When the space assumes a dynamic configuration
for events, the two large partitions are repositioned to allow
for continuous movement from the street level to the lower
level. The extended thresholds transition among the diverse
aspects of performances, benefits, art openings, and other
events.
Click here to see September 2001's
Record
Interiors.
Formal name
of project:
Ethan Cohen Fine Arts Gallery
Location:
New York City
Project Size:
3,800 sq. ft.
Cost of Construction:
$275,000
Client:
Ethan Cohen Fine Arts
Architect's
firm:
Dean/Wolf Architects
Kathryn Dean and Charles Wolf, Partners
40 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
212.385.1170 t
212.385.1174 f
deanwolf@aol.com
|
Video
