The Academy, a unique School teaching in classical fine arts of painting and sculpture, had been housed in the manufacturing building located in the Tribeca District for ten years, without almost any modification to the existing 42,000 square foot structure; the school suffered a fire in 2001, which destroyed approximately 50% of the loft buildings interior space. The project had to be completed in less than 5 months for a cost of $40.00 per square foot, including the replacement of structural elements and new wood historic windows. The design layered new materials juxtaposed on the old structure, exposed by the baring action of the fire. New translucent walls at once define and connect the painting studios, reminiscent of the 1800 painting ateliers in France. The second phase of the project included the renovation of the ground floor public spaces, including the Reception, Great Hall, Library and Café’s spaces.The first floor and cellar are now being expanded to include the adjacent 105 Franklin Street. The fourth phase of the School renovation, currently in the preliminary stages, addresses the full Master Plan for The School, including the complete restoration of the façade, the removal of the handicapped ramp and the reconstruction of the original storefront infill and stepped platform along the entire length of the building. The entry steps and the sculpture exhibit always housed in the niches created by the colonnade, advertise outside of opening hours, the public nature of the building The integrity of the Tribeca Hall would be returned, extending the exhibition space to the street line and connecting the cast iron interior columns to the storefront columns.The platform cascades down to the street, while the sidewalk moves up to the building, in an interlocking movement which reappears on the 8,800 roof addition.

The NYAA is located in the Tribeca Historic District, (although the delineation curiously cuts around this particular structure), thus the proposed addition has been designed according to the Landmark Commission mandate that the structure should not change the “typology” of the building, or simply put, the augmented building still has to read like a five storey loft building.

The design strategy questions the typical additions presently getting built in the area, comprised of boxes pushed all the way out of sight, proposing instead of a non-descript accretion, a clearly defined mansard roof addition, as it was fashionable at the end of the century. Tribeca is also an area where several buildings have original mansard roofs.
The proposed roof, kind of a urban sculpture, is composed of ribbons of zinc sliced upward, pleated to create North light diffusing skylights to light a 6,600 s.f. column free space and a penthouse library/lounge space.

The skylights, slightly visible from the public way, advertise the building use, truly appropriate light manufacturing, morphing on the west façade into a studio window with integrated signage.

This west façade becomes the second façade of the School, being prominent in the Franklyn Street triangle, an interstitial space that is morphing into one of the rare public plazas in New York. The large signage wall gives architectural form to the large scale urban qualities of the site.