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The museum is located in New York City, on the pier concluding 14th Street at Hudson River. In opposition to Manhattan's typical compactness, this site offers a magnificent spaciousness and full exposure towards north, south and west. My intention was to utilize this asset to the advantage of the design. In addition, the openness allowed me to add another feature unique to this place: all the diagonal walls within the structure of the museum are at a 72.5' angle. This is the summer solstice angle for New York City. Given that the outer walls are made of reinforced mirrored glass and assuming that the weather permits direct sunlight, every June 22nd the sun rays will hit certain parts of the building at a right angle. The building will glow, once a year, each year at the same time. The idea was to give it a "birthday", to treat it as an art object with a completion date, a date reminded and celebrated.
The museum is to accommodate artwork hard to contain in regular Manhattan galleries. Ambiance-wise, the space relates to nearby Chelsea galleries in its minimal design and airy interiors. The long "walkways", or exterior corridors, frame viewpoints shooting out into both horizon lines of the river and into the New Jersey skyline. The reinforced glass walls allow maximizing the transparency of the site and consequently, underlining its vast viewing potential. The only closed off spaces are the bathrooms and the raw concrete-built interior galleries. All the exposition-bound spaces are 36' tall in order to hold unusually large artwork.
The final destination of a visitor's journey - the Public Atrium - is connected to the rest of the structure by an 80' long, 32' tall projection screen. During the day it will serve as a mere wall and will be hidden behind the artwork placed in the atrium. At night, though, it will glow with projected imagery. There will also be scheduled screenings in this space held for special events and large-scale presentations.
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