The Van Alen Institute in Manhattan, an advocate of “smart public design” for more than 100 years, is taking to the street.
Last year David van der Leer, the institute’s new director, arranged to swap its longtime quarters on the sixth floor of a Flatiron district building for a storefront space in the same building, where, van der Leer says, “our ability to connect with audiences is much greater.” But gaining accessibility meant going from 5,600 to just 2,500 square feet. So before renovating the ground-floor space, which is both narrow and irregularly shaped, Van der Leer organized an architecture competition. Judges, including architects like Ada Tolla, Mark Gardner, and Winka Dubbeldam, selected a scheme by Collection-LOK, the team of Jon Lott (PARA-Project), William O’Brien Jr. (WOJR), and Michael Kubo (over,under).
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