The Center, in the Greenwich Village Historic District, occupies a mid-19th century school building. This non-profit organization provides offices, meeting and social space to lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender groups. In 1985, we developed a master plan for the building's adaptive reuse. The street facade was restored in 1991 and the work received numerous awards.
The renovation project, completed in 2001, involved making necessary changes to provide spaces for the Center's functions and to make it code compliant while retaining the building's character and grit. We added a new core and increased the building's usable square footage by 20 percent.
We inserted a generous entry lobby with a three story ornamental stair lighted by a new skylight. On each floor, we built new hallways, ending in a floor to ceiling glazed curtain wall providing light and view. Juxtaposed against this new work are exposed, previously exterior, masonry surfaces and many fragments of the Stonewall Art Show. This archaeological approach retains the building's historical layering while celebrating its new life.
PROJECT DATA
Owner: The Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center, 208 West 13th Street, NY.
Area: 30,000 square feet existing + 6,000 square feet new
Scope of Services: Complete architectural services for programming, design and construction documents
PROJECT TEAM
Architect: Françoise Bollack Architects
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Assoc.
MEP Engineering: Abraham Joselow, P.E.
Historic Preservation: Mary B. Dierickx
Cost Control: V.J. Associates
Code Consultant: J. Macdonald
Telecommunications: Flack + Kurtz
Construction Manager: GreyHawk North America
PUBLICATIONS
Clem Labine's Traditional Building, vol.14, no. 6, Nov.- Dec. 2001
Oculus vol.64, no. 1, September 2001
New York Blade vol. 5, no. 29, July 20, 2001
Out vol. 82, Sept 2000
(featured in) NEW YORK 2000 -
Architecture and Urbanism Between the Bicentennial and the Millenium by Robert A. M. Stern,
David Fishman and Jacob Tilove; Monacelli Press, 2006
Awards MasterWork Award from the Municipal Art Society, 2004