Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
This small museum specializing in works on paper required extensive renovations to its public, conservation and office areas as well as a complete upgrade to museum-quality climate systems. After completing these improvements in 2000, WXY was asked for a space-need feasibility study that led to a further commission as the consulting architects for The Drawing Center’s long-term expansion strategy. The firm led the unique institution’s consideration of sites for a new home first at the World Trade Center site and then at the New Market Site at the Old Fulton Fish Market, but eventually decided to stay at its iconic Wooster Street home.
The capital project for 35 Wooster Street expanded the galleries and created dedicated spaces for education programs and artist services. The new Drawing Center is 11,900 square feet with 50% more gallery and programming space. The main architectural plan for ReDraw connects a new ground floor bookstore, visitor services desk, Main Gallery, and indirect sky-lit Drawing Room gallery to office spaces on the second floor and a renovated lower level.
The new lower level includes a room dedicated to art education, a conference room for artists and curators, and The Lab, which will feature a media system for exhibitions and public programs. This allows the museum to provide artists, students, and visitors with the facilities to further explore issues raised by the dynamic and evolving drawing medium well into the 21st century.