Manhattan, NY CetraRuddy is winning praise for its work on cultural and educational works globally, even as the firm maintains its stature for multifamily residential buildings and hospitality projects.
CetraRuddy’s project, the museum Fotografiska New York, has won a 30th annual Lucy Moses Preservation Award, which was announced last week by the New York Landmarks Conservancy.
Fotografiska New York, which reinvigorates the historic landmark building at 281 Park Ave. South, also reopens this month, inviting visitors into the 45,000 s/f cultural venue with photography exhibitions, restaurants, and event programming. CetraRuddy collaborated with preservation consultants Higgins Quasebarth & Partners on the extensive renovations to create a welcoming vistor experience, three floors of new exhibition space, and a versatile event venue on the top floor with vaulted ceilings and skylights.
The New York Landmarks Conservancy praised the Fotografiska project for its “thoughtful restoration and adaptive reuse,” which “revitalized these historic buildings and created new opportunities for the public to experience them.”
The ground floor welcomes the community with a public café, wine bar and a curated book store, featuring reading nooks and seating areas to allow for a sense of discovery. The ground floor was also designed to increase connectivity with the upper floors.
Lined with large wall graphics, the main circulation stairway serves as a preview and vertical extension of exhibits located on floors 3-5. Within the gallery floors, excluding natural light through the addition of interior walls was intentional, with ambient light designed to provide a sense of intimacy with the artwork. These interior walls serve a dual purpose, effectively turning the façade into a 5th canvas, projecting art back to the city and offering a glimpse inside Fotografiska. Above the galleries, the 6th floor has been repurposed and expanded to create a unique environment for public gathering such as lectures, concerts and private events. In keeping with the Fotografiska DNA, the program also includes a full service restaurant on the 2nd floor and an additional bar located in the renovated Calvary Church Annex.
The Lucy Moses Preservation Awards are given to “projects that demonstrate excellence in the restoration, preservation, or adaptive use of historic buildings, streetscapes, and landscapes that preserve commercial, residential, institutional, religious, and public buildings,” according to the group.
Fotografiska New York is the U.S. outpost of the internationally renowned destination for photography based in Stockholm. The adaptive reuse of the 1894 Landmark houses a museum crafted with the DNA of Fotografiska. The goal of the project was to create a space for New Yorkers to meet, eat, drink and experience photography through an immersive series of rotating exhibitions, while simultaneously returning the historic landmark to the public.
Sign up is quick, easy, & FREE.