GUGGENHEIM CHELSEA

Office: Gluckman Mayner Architects
Role: Project Designer

Type: Museum
Status: Unbuilt
Size: 480,000 sqft
Location: New York, NY

This design study for a 480,000-square-foot museum complex provides for ten semi-autonomous units, each comprising one level and accessible by its own dedicated elevator with interstitial space accommodating all of the mechanical and support services of each level. The building footprint is 200 feet by 200 feet, rising 300 feet to house ten levels above the ground and two levels below. A double environmental skin allows control and diffusion of light, permits the dissipation of heat by natural ventilation, and creates a buffer to the highly controlled interior spaces. The skin is intentionally designed to be mutable; transparent, translucent, and opaque, eliciting an ambiguity in concert with the building’s luminous qualities.