The Sperone Westwater Art Gallery in New York City recently filed plans for a new gallery on the Bowery designed by Foster + Partners.
The Sperone Westwater Gallery is a well-established New York art dealer, which will move from their current home to a newly designed building in the bowery neighborhood. The new structure sits only steps away from the recently completed New Museum by SANAA.
The gallery’s new home will feature nine stories, five of which are exhibition space. One of the new building’s key features is a moving gallery which gradually moves between the first five floors and is visible from the street. The moving gallery can also be locked on one floor to extend its space for exhibitions. The building is slated for completion in December 2009.

The following text is from the gallery’s website:

‘Sperone Westwater is pleased to announce that the gallery will move to a new building at 257 Bowery in December 2009. British based Foster + Partners, headed by Norman Foster with Architects of Record, Adamson Associates, have been commissioned to build the new eight-story gallery located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block north of the New Museum. Prompted by Sperone Westwater’s increasing need for larger and more flexible space, the Foster + Partners design will double the exhibition area and provide a variety of rooms for the gallery’s ambitious and diverse program.

A distinctive innovation in the design is a moving exhibition space, a 12 x 20-foot moving hall that connects the five floors where works of art will be on view. The exhibition space allows visitors to move gradually between levels and will be 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 hall as required. This “moving exhibit” will set a new standard in experiencing art and pioneer a novel approach to vertical movement within a gallery building.

The design incorporates a mezzanine floor and double-height display area at street level, a sculpture terrace towards the park and a private viewing gallery at the top of the public floors. A setback marks the location of the offices. Works of art will be stored primarily in the basement, while an extensive library is located at the top of the building below the mechanical floor. Daylight filters into the library through a light well, defining the reading space below.

The two layers of facade that house the moving exhibit acts as a buffer zone, protecting the building from extreme temperatures and acoustically insulating the galleries. A series of openings in the outer layer of this façade, together with the moving exhibition elements, provide a natural flow of air– a part of the building’s sustainable agenda.

In speaking about the project, Norman Foster stated:

‘The concept for Sperone Westwater Gallery 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 exhibit Hall 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.’

For further information visit: www.speronewestwater.com.