Pace Gallery Headquarters

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE ARCHITECTS:

New, eight - story building accommodates the shifting functions of a contemporary gallery while more than doubling Pace’s current exhibition space in New York City

New York, September 9, 2019—Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture is pleased to announce the opening of the new Pace Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Located at 540 West 25th Street, Pace’s new, global headquarters was designed by Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture, working closely with Pace Gallery leadership. The gallery will open to the public on September 14, 2019.

Best-known for its residential, hospitality, and retail work around the world—and also more recently for cutting-edge yacht design and the first global campus of Avenues: The World School—Bonetti/Kozerski brought a deep understanding of materiality, proportion, and light to this, its first gallery commission.

“It’s been an honor to design such a significant project in partnership with a world-class gallery like Pace,” said Dominic Kozerski, RIBA, Co-Founder and Partner of Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture. “The gallery world is constantly in flux; this project has given us the remarkable opportunity to help imagine the future of the gallery building typology.”

Pace Gallery President and CEO Marc Glimcher worked closely with the architects throughout the four-year process. “Enrico and Dominic and their team had a unique and transformative vision for our new gallery from the start. The execution of this building has been virtually flawless and our expectations were exceeded in every regard. Without their creativity, this project would never have been realized at this level.”

The modern silhouette of the new Pace Gallery stands among the historic warehouses of West Chelsea; with its stature and large-scale architectural gestures (stone facade, large windows), it sits comfortably alongside its neighbors, while still commanding attention.

The exterior of the building is clad in volcanic stone up to the sixth floor of the front facade, and aluminum foam panels on the rest. The volcanic stone was quarried from Sicily’s Mount Etna and then fired at high heat, melting the top layer to a rich matte black color, while enhancing the visual texture.

But by far the most striking exterior feature of the gallery is the sixth-floor terrace. Partially shaded by the seventh-and-eight floor penthouse, a massive curved volume in stainless steel and glass that overhangs it, the terrace offers panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline and the Hudson River. The terrace, paved in blocks of Black Locust wood, has been designed to support large-scale art installations and host events (the freight elevator was fabricated specifically to accommodate the weight of both colossal sculptures and the odd food truck).

Inside, Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture’s entirely column-free design and flexible lighting plan, devised in partnership with lighting designer Arnold Chan of London’s Isometrix Lighting Design, supports a maximally diverse approach to exhibition programming. Galleries range from intimate spaces—the third floor galleries are a combined 1,900 square feet, with solid oak floors—to spaces impressive for their sheer expansiveness: the ground floor gallery has 3,600 square feet between its polished concrete floor and its soaring 18-foot ceilings. This gallery also has an oversized glass pivot door, which opens it to the street.

In addition to its 16,500 square feet of exhibition space, the new Pace Gallery has a 10,000volume research library, an open art-storage area, and a 2,200 square-foot space dedicated to new media works, performance, and public programming. “Designing the building challenged us to re-evaluate what it means to be an art gallery today,” says Enrico Bonetti, AIA, Co-Founder and Partner of Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture. “The contrasts of private and public, indoor and out, art and commerce are all at play in our design. Our hope is that the new space provides a dynamic, inviting setting for Pace, its artists, and visitors from around the world.”

The new Pace Gallery, located at 540 West 25th Street, opens September 14, 2019.

Project Credits:
Project: Pace Gallery Headquarters
Architects: Bonetti / Kozerski Architecture DPC. Enrico Bonetti, AIA, (co-design partner), Dominic Kozerski, RIBA, (co-design partner), Matteo Fraticelli, AIA, (associate in charge / project architect)
Lighting Design: Arnold Chan, Isometrix Lighting Design, London
Structural Engineer: WSP, New York
Mechanical Engineer: ADS, New York
Construction Manager: AECOM Tishman