Kunsthalle NY-01, NYC, USA
for
role
status
year
Diane Lewis Architect
Project Leader
Unbuilt
1992
The project involved the 30,000 sf adaptive re-use of the former Beethoven Hall dance hall on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to establish a non-profit museum modeled after the 19th Century, originally Swiss, institution known as the Kunsthalle or “arts hall”.
The design proposed a new “Light Layer” lid or roof for the building consisting of a concrete space frame with integral operable panels to control natural light in the main third floor galleries; three artists’ living and working lofts and public roof gallery.
The structural space frame grid was designed to carry the load of several additional stories in the event that the owner elected to develop the maximum F.A.R. for the site.
The design also involves the creation of an outdoor lecture hall /theater at the main gallery level connected by an exterior ramp to the artist’s lofts at the roof; a second floor devoted to offices intended for use by an autonomous arts-related organization; an arts club and restaurant with separate street entrance: and the refurbishment of the existing commercial film studio at the second level.
