Richard Green Gallery New Bond Street Mayfair London, Building, English Design

Richard Green Gallery New Bond Street Mayfair

Mayfair Gallery Building design by ADAM Architecture, London, England, UK

13 Feb 2012

Richard Green Gallery New Bond Street in Mayfair

Richard Green Gallery, 32-33 New Bond St, Mayfair, West London, UK

George Saumarez Smith of Adam Architecture

Bond Street Welcomes New Modern Art Gallery Designed By Adam Architecture

The first new, purpose built art gallery to be constructed on Bond Street since the early 20th Century has just been completed. The Richard Green gallery at 33 New Bond Street was designed by George Saumarez Smith, director at ADAM Architecture. The 591.4 sqm five storey building includes a gallery, board room, office, library and storage space.

pictures : Morley von Sternberg

The gallery will specialise in paintings by leading masters of modern art, complementing Richard Green’s gallery at 147 New Bond Street, which will show works from the Dutch Golden Age to Impressionism.

The new gallery makes a strong architectural statement whilst fitting seamlessly into elegant Bond Street which is one of London’s premier thoroughfares. The design follows the typical 18th Century arrangement seen along Bond Street, of a single-storey shop front, two principal floors and an attic. The ground floor has bronze-framed windows and doors, and all elements of the shop front have been carefully considered as part of the design including signage and lighting. Within weeks of its completion the building was awarded the prestigious Georgian Society award for a new building in a Georgian context.

pictures : Morley von Sternberg

The interior of the building has been designed in collaboration with Phillip Hooper of Colefax and Fowler, with the architectural design of the main staircase being particularly important. This is constructed as a cantilevered stone stair rising from basement to first floor, connecting the main gallery spaces. At the top of the stairwell is an oval lantern which brings natural light into the back of the building.

Saumarez Smith’s hallmark is the integration of classicism with modernity and the creation of new buildings which respond to their historic environment. While the Portland stone facade of the building is neo-classical, in keeping with the surrounding streetscape, the interior has been designed to display modern art and the enhanced provision for natural light emphasises the spaciousness of the galleries.

George Saumarez Smith commented, “The traditional 18th Century Bond Street idiom,”, “is a single-storey shop front, two principal floors and an attic. Composition of the facade is along these lines, replacing the two original unlisted buildings at numbers 32 and 33. The resulting wide facade has been designed to incorporate the memory of the previous buildings; the single bay on the right-hand side, for instance, occupies what was number 32. Although the architectural detail is simple, the new neo-classical sculpture along the facade makes it clear that it is a neo-classical building.”

pictures : Morley von Sternberg

THE FRIEZE

The facade of the new five-storey gallery provides the architectural framework for The Prophesy of Tiresias, three bas-reliefs by the artist Alexander Stoddart. These illustrate scenes from Homer’s Odyssey (the blind seer’s prophecy for Odysseus from Book XI), which are presented as an allegory for the development of modern art from 1900 to the present day. They were carved from Portland stone in Italy using Stoddart’s full-scale models made in his studios in Paisley, Scotland.

Jonathan Green, gallery director commented; “We are third-generation fine art dealers whose family has been trading in Mayfair and St. James’s for 75 years.This gallery is a confident statement of our faith in the ongoing predominance of Mayfair and Bond Street as the hub of the international fine art market. It will emphasise the major role of Richard Green in the ever expanding market for modern art.”

The gallery specialises in paintings by leading masters of 20th Century modern art and officially opened at the end of last month. The new gallery is directly opposite Richard Green’s flagship gallery at 147 New Bond Street and raises a graceful storey above Sotheby’s, its long-term neighbour. Since the original acquisition of the Freehold of numbers 32 and 33 New Bond Street in 1993, it has been Richard Green’s intention to develop the two buildings as one.

Richard Green
33 New Bond Street London W1

Richard Green Gallery New Bond Street Mayfair images / information from ADAM Architecture

ADAM Architecture

Location: 33 New Bond Street, London, W1, England, UK

London Buildings

Contemporary London Architecture

London Architecture Designs – chronological list

London Architecture Tours by e-architect

London Architects Offices

Mayfair Buildings

photo : Adam Parker

London Art Galleries

Gabriela Hearst, corner of Brook Street and Davies Street, Mayfair
Architects: Foster + Partners

photography : Nigel Young / Foster + Partners
Gabriela Hearst London Store