Sperone Westwater Gallery, Bowery Manhattan, NYC Building, Architect, Images, Address, Design

Sperone Westwater New York Gallery

New York Gallery Building design by Foster + Partners architects

Jul 6, 2016

new photo © Adrian Welch:

Jun 22, 2012

Sperone Westwater New York – News

Location: Bowery, New York City

Design: Foster + Partners

photo : Tom Powel

Sperone Westwater : RIBA International Awards : Winners News

Sep 21, 2010

Sperone Westwater gallery opens on the Bowery

Sperone Westwater Gallery

Address: 257 Bowery, New York, NY 10002, United States

Phone: +1 212-999-7337

Design: Foster + Partners

Gallery building for Chelsea art dealer

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.

photos : Nigel Young_Foster + Partners

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.

photos : Nigel Young_Foster + Partners

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.

photos : Nigel Young_Foster + Partners

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.’

images : Foster + Partners

Sperone Westwater New York, USA
2008-10

Sperone Westwater, New York

In September 2010, Sperone Westwater celebrates its 35th anniversary with the opening of 257 Bowery, an iconic building designed by Foster + Partners. Founded in 1975, Sperone Westwater’s original program showcased a European avant-garde alongside a core group of American artists to whom its founders were committed. Today, the gallery continues to exhibit an international roster of prominent artists working in a wide variety of media. Prompted by the need for larger and more structurally flexible space, the Foster + Partners design doubles the gallery’s exhibition area and provides a variety of rooms for the gallery’s ambitious and diverse program. The eight-storey building pioneers an innovative approach to vertical movement within a gallery setting.

The centerpiece of the concept is a 12 x 20 foot moving room, 13 feet high, which can create either a temporal transition between the gallery’s exhibition floors or an extension to a particular floor’s program. Slowly moving between floors, the moving room will be a prominent feature on the Bowery. Visible from the street, its gentle pace and Ferrari-red exterior, contrasts markedly with the surrounding environment. An additional passenger/ freight elevator and stairs provide alternate access.

According to Norman Foster, “The concept for Sperone Westwater is 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 room 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 gallery’s major program.”

The design incorporates a double height, 27-foot tall 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 4th and 5th floors. A setback at the sixth floor marks the location of the gallery’s administrative offices, library and mechanical spaces.

Location: 257 Bowery, East Village / Lower East Side, New York, NY 10002