Shown (from left) are: Ball; Reyna; Lentol; Rajeev Sharma, director of client services, Industrial Technical Assistance Corp.; David Brown and David Levy, R+R VPs; Dumbleton; Berman; Archibald; and Heiman; and Anthony Viola, project superintendent, R+R.Brooklyn, NY Sculptor Barry Ball, construction manager Richter + Ratner (R+R), architect Andrew Berman, and owner’s representative TADA completed the structural frame of a new sculpture studio and fabrication facility located at 193 Banker St. in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg Industrial Business Zone in North Williamsburg.
The traditional topping-out ceremony celebrated the completion of the structural frame of the new building. The celebration culminated in the lifting of the structure’s last steel beam – decorated with an American flag and signed by guests and project team members – to the roof of the new studio. The studio owner Ball; deputy Brooklyn borough president Diana Reyna; NYS assembly member Joseph Lentol; Evergreen executive director Leah Archibald and business services manager Karen Nieves; R+R CEO and president Marc Heiman; Andrew Berman, principal of Andrew Berman Architect, PLLC; and TADA principal Timothy Dumbleton led the event.
“I am very excited to achieve this significant milestone in the construction process, thanks to the efforts and dedication of the design and construction team of Andrew Berman, Richter+Ratner, and TADA, as well as the support of the local community, Evergreen, and the Greenpoint/Williamsburg Industrial Business Zone,” said Ball.
“Today’s event proves once again that Brooklyn is the global capital of the arts and creative industries. Borough president Adams and I are very excited that Barry X Ball has decided to build his new studio, which will become the home to 30 artists and technicians, in Brooklyn,” said Reyna.
“This $18.2 million, 17,500 s/f project will be the only comprehensive large-scale high-tech stone sculpture fabrication facility in the world. We are proud to contribute to the growth of New York City’s artistic community and help bring jobs and manufacturing back to this industrial section of Brooklyn,” said Heiman.
“The design team took great care to ensure that the architecture of the new building reflects the industrial heritage of the neighborhood, while creating a modern, functional art studio,” said Berman.
The complex is slated for completion in 2017. In addition to R+R, Berman and TADA, the project team includes structural engineer Gilsanz Murray Steficek, LLP; mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineer Plus Group; acoustical engineers Cerami & Associates; geotechnical engineer Pilori Associates; and environmental engineers Langan Engineering.
Ball’s current studio, a diminutive 3,000 s/f, three-story space with a backyard, is at 97 Grand St. in Williamsburg. The small size of that studio relative to the ambitious plans for his art has forced Ball, to date, to fabricate large-sized sculptures off-site, primarily in Italy. Space limitations also capped Ball’s staff of digital and other artists at 15. The new studio is designed to address the shortcomings of the current facility, support the artist’s complex design and fabrication processes, and permit the realization of advanced new types of sculptures.
Ball is a world-class contemporary sculptor based in New York City. Ball employs an elaborate array of equipment and procedures to realize his works, ranging from the cutting-edge to the traditional, from 3D digital scanning, virtual modeling, rapid prototyping, and computer-controlled milling, to hyper-detailed hand carving and polishing.
His work has been widely exhibited internationally over the last 30 years and is represented in many public and private collections. Among his upcoming museum exhibitions are solo shows at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, TX; The Panza Collection in Varese, Italy; The Contemporary Austin in Texas; the Museo Pietà Rondanini in Milano, Italy; and Ca’ Pesaro in Venice, Italy. His work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, FL; The Maramotti Collection in Reggio-Emilia, Italy; Le Fonds Regional d’Art Contemporain Bretagne in Rennes, France; Magasin 3 Stockholm Konstahl, Sweden; Museo Cantonale d’Arte di Lugano in Switzerland; Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy; the Berlingieri Collection; Italy; the Olbricht Collection, Germany; and the Panza Collection, Switzerland.
Both the local community and business groups have been enthusiastic in their support of the new studio. One of Ball’s supporters is a public-private partnership called Evergreen, which is financially assisted by New York City and members of the organization. Its goal is to support the North Brooklyn Industrial Business Zones. The new studio complex is located within the Greenpoint/Williamsburg Industrial Business Zone, which has, in recent years, become a destination for artisanal and high-end manufacturers as well as more traditional industrial companies. Evergreen, as well as Rajeev Sharma,
Design and Construction
The new studio and fabrication facility, located on a site that is 200’ wide and 100’ deep, will enable Ball to create his sculptures with a staff of 30 or more assistants and artists. On the site was an existing two-story, 11,000 s/f industrial building, which is being completely renovated and incorporated into the new facility. The new studio will feature an imposing 8,000 s/f new structure and a 2,500 s/f outdoor stone storage yard and workspace, both served by 20-ton bridge cranes.
“The project is unusual in that most artists renovate existing buildings, whereas this studio was designed from the ground up specifically to accommodate Barry Ball’s needs,” said Heiman.
Ball selected R+R because he liked the construction management delivery method and was impressed by the firm’s experience in delivering highly complex and challenging projects. As part of their approach, R+R used its proprietary Technical Evaluation Analysis Recommendation™ or T.E.A.R. Review™ process. T.E.A.R. is a comprehensive assessment of all facets of a project aimed at eliminating design and engineering inconsistencies, correcting missing or contradictory specifications, and reducing complexities that might hinder the project during construction. This assessment, performed during the design and pre-construction phases, accelerates the delivery schedule, reduces the number of change orders, diminishes the possibility of a conflict among project team members, and frequently reduces the cost.
Among material and method improvements suggested by R+R as part of the pre-construction T.E.A.R. review of the studio, performed in collaboration with the architectural and engineering team, the construction management personnel incorporated revisions to the structural design of the green roof and other sections of the building, revised the design of the roof deck, simplified construction methods of sections of walls, and resolved several constructability issues.
The T.E.A.R. Review is critical to R+R’s policy of not accepting fees for change orders on its projects – one of several innovative firsts that the company has introduced to the construction market.
Exterior and Structure
The St. façade will feature a dark gray metal fence, semi-translucent so passersby can look into the site to observe the work of the artist and his team. Immediately behind the fence is an outdoor space for the storage of stone. The entrances to the outdoor yard and the large fabrication hall will feature banks of insulated motorized doors made by the Swiss company Bator, known for its manufacture of airplane hangar doors.
According to Richter+Ratner project superintendent Anthony Viola, “The massive exterior and interior foundations are engineered to support heavy machinery and stacked raw stone blocks weighing up to 22 tons. The new building required the installation of 210 underground 50’ pilings made of pressure-treated wood. Each pile is topped with a steel cap connected to rebar frames in a grid of concrete grade-beams that support the concrete floor in both the outdoor storage area and inside the fabrication facility.”
Since stone treatment process water has stone particles in it, it cannot be discharged into the sewer system. Instead, this water will be filtered by an advanced ECS Eich filtration system, manufactured in Germany. In addition, a large retention tank was installed beneath the exterior concrete slab to collect rainwater from the entire site, buffering discharge into the New York City sewer system.
The new floor in the existing building as well as the floor in the new studio will be elevated above grade in accordance with the new New York City flood plain level. “The engineering and construction team carefully planned and installed a dense network of plumbing piping at the correct angles through the massive grade-beams for storm water runoff and sewage,” said David Brown, R+R’s vice president.
“Bordering the outside storage yard is the main new building, which will house a 30-ft.-high main fabrication hall,” said Dumbleton. “The fabrication hall will feature an Italian-made, computer-numerically-controlled Pellegrini RW 2600 robot wire stone profiling saw. The Pellegrini can handle blocks of stone up to 20 tons that are up to eight ft. wide, five ft. high, and 10 ft. long. The 20-ton bridge cranes made by Finland-based KONE, which will serve both the fabrication hall and outside yard, will be wirelessly controlled and include all the latest safety features. In the near future, Ball is planning on installing anthropomorphic CNC robots to complement the Pellegrini and the artist’s superb team of hand sculptors.
“The existing building is a steel structure with CMU walls. This building will get a new brick façade painted a dark charcoal color and will feature large windows. The new fabrication building will feature corrugated steel outside walls in order to maintain the industrial look of the complex and the entire neighborhood,” said Viola.
“The exterior architecture is focused on functionality; the materials and details speak to the function of the building and the neighborhood itself. It also speaks to the care with which Ball approaches his work,” said Berman. “Thus, the design incorporates the refurbished existing warehouse of brick, concrete, and steel. From there, the language is continued in an updated vocabulary of a steel frame, concrete slabs, and the extensive use of metal and polycarbonate sheeting.”
The St. front of the complex was intended to both generate interest in the artist’s work and provide a bit of mystery to passersby. In the front storage yard, one can see the monumental pieces of stone to pique one’s curiosity, but the art that takes shape within the facility is hidden. Conversely, the workers will be able to look outside and take breaks in a quiet environment right outside their workspaces. Daylight is also maximized through the use of a translucent polycarbonate sheeting upper front wall, a long rear clerestory window, and skylights. The polycarbonate sheeting also speaks to the industrial aesthetic of the building.
Both the client and the architect made an effort to create a balance between the large, open workspaces where equipment and people coexist in a very active manner, and the individual workspaces where personal space is valued and appreciated. This was done so that the creative process can flourish, as Ball has a great deal of respect for the individual workers. Thus, the individual workspaces feature high amounts of natural light, good natural ventilation, views outside through windows, and a high number of doors leading to the front and back courtyards that can be kept open and are easily accessed.
Critical to Ball’s production process is his need for his employees to work both individually and collaboratively. The design promotes this throughout. For example, in the digital lab, the workstations are configured in a way that allows up to six people to gather around each screen to review the work taking place. A large screen in the digital lab allows even more people at once to review designs. Another consideration was the analog and digital processes taking place simultaneously and interacting with each other – the design enables the digital design and physical prototyping to be conducted simultaneously and can be reviewed and collaborated on simultaneously within the digital lab.
Interior
The ground level will feature a gallery, wood shop, central supply room, art storage and packing room, shipping/receiving department with a loading dock, and a large elevator that serves the three floors of the building and goes to the roof. The third floor is a partial floor that is partially cantilevered over the existing building. The existing building will also house a staircase leading to the second floor (which will house digital labs and offices) and the roof. A new concrete block elevator shaft within the existing building will support the cantilevered section of the roof. The third floor will house a 1,200 s/f green room with three-side glazing overseeing a green roof. The green room, which will house a kitchen, seating area, and patio, will face north and west to Manhattan. It, along with the entire roof, offers sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline from Central Park to the World Trade Center. The green room will have stairs leading to a second green roof accessible to employees and guests. While the building has a 30-foot St. frontage height limitation, the height can be increased deeper inside the site, thus allowing for the creation of the green room.
The nearly 4,000 s/f main fabrication hall will feature four garage-type doors from Bator that are each 15 ft. high and 17 ft. wide. Clerestory windows are featured above the entrance bays. They are made of insulated polycarbonate panels. The polycarbonate wall will be nearly 15 ft. tall and nearly 100 ft. long to let in a great deal of light. The doors enclose the access bays to the main fabrication hall and will help facilitate the movement of oversized stone pieces. The new structure will have a steel frame with oversized roof beams to support the internal crane, a large-span open space for the fabrication hall, as well as a heavy green roof above with up to two ft. of soil used for both storm water control and as an architectural element.
The roof of the new fabrication hall features an outdoor green roof with two ft. of soil, which allows for the planting of trees as well as the green room on top of the third floor. The green room will also have its own green roof accessible by staircase.
Behind the hall, on the east perimeter of the building, there will be four 400 s/f work rooms (a sandblasting room, two grinding rooms for heavy stone removal, and one plastic-lined wet room for washing), employee bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms, as well as a pantry and social area. An additional social area will be created outdoors, adjacent to the interior area. It will feature a grill, vegetation, and outdoor furniture.
The project also includes a new small wing for utilities and an air compressor that will be located on the north side of the site.
Internal walls are all gypsum board. The color scheme for the entire project is black and dark charcoal with paint in metallic silver and white to serve as a background to bring out the color of the sculptures. The lightness of color goes up as one goes deeper into the space. The first interior spaces are black and charcoal and the surroundings get lighter as one gets to the center of the complex. Thus, as one walks into the site, one is walking into “light.” Lighting itself is extremely important in the space. Nearly all the lights are LED with a 4,000K color temperature and a 90% color rendition index. Lights in the main fabrication hall will have an increased brightness of 550 ft. candles.
The architect created not only a highly functional structure that addresses Ball’s production needs but purposely created a comfortable workspace for his 30 employees. This included maximizing daylight throughout the spaces, in part by including exits to the backyard from most of the interior spaces, allowing the workers to look outside and take breaks in a quiet, quality natural environment right outside their workspaces. Daylight is also maximized through the use of translucent polycarbonate sheeting, which allows a great deal of natural light into the spaces, especially into the hand-working shops. The polycarbonate sheeting also speaks to the industrial aesthetic of the building.
Both the client and the architect made an effort to create a balance between the large, open workspaces where equipment and people coexist in a very active manner, and the individual workspaces where personal space is valued and appreciated. This was done so that the creative process can flourish, as Ball has a great deal of respect for the individual workspace. Thus, the individual workspaces feature high amounts of natural light, good natural ventilation, views outside through windows, and a high number of doors leading to the back courtyard that can be kept open and are easily accessed.
Critical to Ball’s production process is his need for his employees to work both individually and collaboratively. The design promotes this throughout. For example, in the digital lab, the workstations are configured in a way that allows up to six people to gather around each screen to review the work taking place. A large screen in the digital lab allows even more people at once to review designs. Another consideration was the analog and digital processes taking place simultaneously and interacting with each other – the design enables the digital design and physical prototyping to be conducted simultaneously and can be reviewed and collaborated on simultaneously within the digital lab.
Pre-design Phase
During the pre-design phase, the architectural team developed a list of needs for the new facility based on the studio workflow. On the one hand, Ball had a clear idea about what elements he needed, but not the full organization of that space. “The current sculptural process is partly outsourced,” said Berman. “Specific details about the organization of the new studio had to be worked out in advance, as no facility like this has ever been created before. We had to perform an extensive analysis of the current processes and had quite a bit of back-and-forth discussion with Barry to come up with optimal solutions.” The facility will house all phases of the art creation process, which the architectural and engineering team had to scale up, grading the sites and the equipment, while taking into consideration the larger sizes of equipment and materials, and come up with ways to maximize efficiencies and optimize the work flow.
For example, the design team took into consideration how Ball’s work is an intense series of different processes starting with the selection of the stone. This phase called for the large storage yard, as each block of stone is up to 20 tons. Stone must be stored, inspected, and moved.
Next are the slicing and milling of the blocks, hand refining, sandblasting room, and washing – the work will vary from heavy industrial techniques to fine manual work by highly-skilled artists. Individual rooms in the facility are dedicated to each of these. The studio’s operations include a great deal of digital work, prototyping, and testing, all of which also had to be accommodated in the design of the studio in a rational way with an optimized workflow. Understanding each process guided the architect in creating the space. For example, it had to be easy to move the giant blocks of stone throughout the ground-floor spaces; thus, Berman created large openings in the site and organized it in such a way that it could accommodate large machinery. The entrance to the site, the storage yard, and the monumental fabrication hall are organized so as to allow trucks to easily enter through large doors. It is also why the storage yard and fabrication hall each has a large 20-ton bridge crane.
Similarly, the designers had to develop a design that prevented cross-contamination between rooms, due to the differing operations in the artist’s process. They specified separate mechanical systems for each space and incorporated high-level air filters so all dust is captured. A similar approach was taken for water-treatment systems. The facility incorporates a water-capture and filtration system in which stone slurry is recovered and sold for reuse to other industries, and the water recycled.
Another consideration during the planning phase was the use of optimal paths for moving people through the facility. Berman had to accommodate two groups of people: employees and guests (clients, collectors, gallerists, the press, etc.). He created a design wherein one entrance is for employees and another is for guests, with the gallery and workstations in the existing building being the starting point. The two groups’ paths cross, but they develop in a different way for each group. According to Berman, “This showcases the facility. Embedded is the ability for Barry to explain the workflow and present the facility during the tours.”
Architecturally, the facility is in a manufacturing district with low-rise zoning. Berman wanted to work within the character of the neighborhood by choosing to honor the character and scale of the industrial area. Doing that is a source of pride for the design team. According to Berman, “We are playing a part in bringing manufacturing back into the area as part of honoring the heritage of the neighborhood. It was very satisfying to work on this project for that reason.”
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