Project Details
- Project Name
- Elm City PostMasters
- Location
- CT
- Client/Owner
- PostMasters
- Project Types
-
Office ,Cultural ,Institutional
- Project Scope
- Addition/Expansion
- Size
- 40,000 sq. feet
- Year Completed
- 2018
- Shared by
- Ayda Ayoubi
- Team
-
Deborah Berke
Maitland Jones
Chris Yost
- Consultants
-
Interior Designer: Deborah Berke Partners,Structural Engineer: Aschettino Associates,Other: BL Companies,Civil Engineer: B&B Engineering,Lighting Designer: PHT Lighting Design
- Project Status
- On the Boards/In Progress
Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
Artist Titus Kaphar has commissioned Deborah Berke Partners to design the home for Elm City PostMasters, an arts incubator, gallery, makerspace and studio, and coworking space in the Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. Dedicated to providing affordable workspaces for artists, mentoring local youth, and contributing to the revitalization of Dixwell and surrounding New Haven, Elm City PostMasters occupies two former-factory buildings, and includes a luminous new addition.
Kaphar, who holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art, and his partners, conceived of PostMasters as a place to build New Haven’s creative capacity by retaining Yale-trained artists and nurturing high school students and emerging artists. Because Deborah Berke Partners designed the Yale School of Art, where he himself studied, Kaphar was familiar with the firm’s approach. Capturing the firm’s deep experience designing spaces for making art, PostMasters’s architecture will bring DBP’s artist-centered design philosophy to the Dixwell community.
The new building is a place of “not just artists simply making work that goes out into the art world, where people sort of bid and barter for our products as if they were some sort of commodity, but creating situations that would allow those artists to build relationship with students to really impact their life through art making,” Titus Kaphar told the Yale News. The 40,000-square-foot facility will include studios, meeting rooms and offices, a co-working “Great Hall” (also used for events and performances), a 3-D printing fabrication lab, gallery, and cafe. The new addition will contain artists’ studios, as well as small apartments for artists-in-residence. “As an architect and an educator, I am inspired by Titus’ vision. We’re honored to design a space where young artists will find mentorship and where new art and ideas will be created,” Deborah Berke, founder of Deborah Berke Partners, said. “We’re also proud to be part of the revitalization of the Dixwell community and New Haven more broadly.”
The design celebrates the found conditions of the old buildings, which originally contained ice cream and laboratory equipment factories. Timber beams, brick walls, and concrete floors are cleaned and left exposed, while select industrial elements are retained. The double-height Great Hall has sawtooth skylights; a former mechanical room is transformed to a performance venue. The cafe opens to the street, providing a place for the community to gather throughout the day.
“While we let the inherent properties of the existing buildings shine through, we also want to create spaces that don’t intrude on productive and artistic energies,” said Maitland Jones, a partner at Deborah Berke Partners. “We design places in which artists can do their best work.”
The new addition has a glass and precast-concrete facade with a distinct scalloped profile. The translucent glass at street-level brings natural light into below-grade studios, while clear glass on the second and third levels opens views out to the neighborhood. A terrace is set into the rooftop, allowing the upper facade to step back in deference to its surroundings. Beginning at dusk every day, the new addition slowly illuminates, becoming a beacon for the center, a symbol of renewed investment in the neighborhood.