Scopic Fields: Sperone Westwater Gallery / Foster + Partners

We took a few shots of Foster + Partners’ latest addition to the Bowery – a new gallery to house the Sperone Westwater’s growing collection from prominent artists of different nationalities and ages. Sitting a few steps away from SANAA’s musuem, this new gallery’s CNC milled glass facade elegantly responds to its neighboring art museum. According to Foster, the gallery is “both a response to the dynamic urban character of New York’s Bowery and a desire to rethink the way in which the public engages with art in the setting of a gallery.”

The nine-story museum will include flexible exhibition spaces and a dynamic moving gallery. This 12-20 foot moving room is an “innovative approach to vertical movement within a gallery building” as it connects the five floors where the works of art will be displayed, allowing visitors to gradually move between levels. Visible from the street, the platform can also be locked on one floor to extend its space for exhibitions. The architects’ note the contrast between the slow pace of the platform with the fast-paced traffic of the street.

The museum also includes a sculpture terrace toward the park and a private viewing gallery at the top of the public floors. The top floor houses a library which doubles as an event space for different functions.