Sperone Westwater celebrates the opening of its new gallery on the Bowery in New York with an inaugural exhibition by Argentinean artist, Guillermo Kuitca. Nearly 35 years after its conception, Sperone Westwater continues to exhibit an international roster of prominent artists working in a wide variety of media. Its new building, designed by Foster + Partners, doubles the exhibition area and pioneers an innovative approach to vertical movement within a gallery setting.
Foster + Partners team: Norman Foster, Mouzhan Majidi, David Nelson, Spencer de Grey, David Summerfield, Michael Wurzel, Peter Han, Tommaso Fantoni, Taek Park, Sebastian Mendez, Jacob Bekermus, Stephen Nielson
Interior View
Site Area: 2,500 ft²
Gross Area: 20,000 ft²
Building Footprint: 100ft x 25ft
Typical Floor to Floor Height-Gallery: 16’-0”
Typical Floor to Ceiling Height-Gallery: 13’-0”
Typical Floor to Floor Height-Office: 12’-0”
Typical Floor to Ceiling Height-Office: 9’-0”
Building Height: 131’-0”
Sperone Westwater
Number of Storeys: 8 Storeys + Mechanical Floor + Basement
Moving Gallery: Interior dimensions: 20’ x 12’ x13’ (height) Steel frame structure with red exterior cladding. Operated by hydraulic pistons system
Structure: Structural concrete
Exterior View
Cladding:
North and South Facade – Corrugated Black Metal Panels
West Façade – CNC milled laminated glass on rigid frame system
East Façade – Combination of corrugated black metal panel system and transparent glass
Elevators: 1 Passenger Elevator/ Freight Elevator, 8000 pounds, 9’ x 5’-6” approximately
Sperone Westwater
MEP system:
Centralised HVAC system with heat recovering wheels.
Gas-fired boiler and chillers in basement.
Cooling tower at roof level.
Interior View
Responding to the compact 25 by 100 foot site, one of the features of the project is a 12 by 20 foot moving gallery, which connects the upper four exhibition floors and allows visitors to move gradually between levels. It is a prominent feature along the Bowery, visible from the street, its gentle pace contrasting with the fast-moving traffic. At any given floor, the exhibition space can be extended by parking the moving room as required, with an additional elevator and stairs providing alternative access.
Interior View
The gallery offers a range of exhibition spaces, which vary in proportion and ambience. The design incorporates a double-height, 27-foot high exhibition space at street level, with a sky-lit gallery, a mezzanine floor, a sculpture terrace overlooking a park, and private viewing galleries on the fourth and fifth floors. A setback at the sixth floor marks the location of the gallery’s administrative offices. Works of art will be stored primarily in the basement, while a library is located at the top of the building, below the mechanical floor. The milled glass facade that houses the moving room acts as a buffer zone, protecting the building from extreme temperatures and acoustically insulating the gallery spaces.
Interior View
Norman Foster commented:
‘The concept for Sperone Westwater represents both a response to the Bowery’s dynamic urban character and a desire to rethink the way in which we engage with art in the setting of a gallery. The moving gallery animates the exterior of the building and creates a bold vertical element within. Like a kinetic addition to the street, it is a lively symbol of the area’s reinvention and a daring response to the Sperone Westwater’s major program. I hope that artists will be inspired by the gallery’s new spatial and structural possibilities.’
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