The New 42nd Street Studios is an unusual project, reinterpreting the purposes of the Times Square Entertainment District - the large public project intended to get new economic benefits from New York’s famously glitzy Times Square - to give them meaning beyond re-created ersatz kitsch. In place of conventional Times Square neon, the entire facade is an abstract collage of color and light that signals its use as a creative “factory” for the performing arts. Perforated metal blades and dichroic glass create pattern and color by day. At night, theatrical lights play over the facade in an infinitely variable sequence of colors.
Commissioned by the not-for-profit arts organization The New 42nd Street, Inc., the building provides eleven stories of commodious dance studios, with two reception halls, a black box theater, and dressing and office facilities for dance and other performing arts companies.
Winner of the 2002 AIA Honor Award for Architecture; 2001 New York State AIA Design Award; and 2001 New York Chapter AIA Design Award. This project also won the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, International Illumination Design Award - The Paul Waterbury Award for Outdoor Lighting Design Award of Distinction; the International Association of Lighting Designers, Special Citation IALD Award; and the New York Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, Lumen Award of Merit.
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