Sundaram Tagore Gallery / Katz Architecture

Architect: Katz Architecture
Location: 547 West 27th Street, New York City, New York, USA
MEP Engineer: Lilker Associates
Schematic Design: Charles Hemminger Associates
Lighting: Lighting Collaborative
Expediting: William Vitacco Associates
Custom Concrete: The Concrete Impressionist
Photographs: Julian Olivas of Air-to-Ground Photography

Highlights:

Located in a run down 19th century factory building, the space was an abandoned former taxi garage.

The space had heavy timber framing, which Katz highlighted by revealing the structure, leaving old floor joists and utilities open to public view.

Katz refinished the floor in polished concrete.

plan

The Gallery:

The Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. In keeping with its mission, the Gallery sought to bridge dualities when they moved into the ground floor of a manufacturing building in West Chelsea. The new space, which last served as a taxi garage, had to be completely overhauled to serve as a platform for cross-cultural discussion through visual art, poetry, literature, performance art, film and music.

The Design:

The backdrop for this discussion was a dialogue of contrasts – existing and pre-existing, industrial and natural, textured and smooth, old and new. The design attempted to reveal the history of the space, to bridge past and present and create an environment within which artwork can hover.

Text provided by Katz Architecture.