"a place for art"

Warehouse 623 is the conversion of an existing two-story brick storage warehouse in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood. The new building program includes a ground floor commercial art gallery and café, with flexible artist and craftsman studios on the 2nd floor. The 2nd-floor workshop space will be rented out on a per desk/per month basis to accommodate the changing needs of Brooklyn artists.

The existing façade will be replaced by glazing and a perforated moveable steel screen operated with a concealed counterbalance and pulley system. The screen will sit in the UP position during gallery opening hours, providing sun shading to the studio space above. When the gallery is closed, or for private events or in winter, the screen will sit in the DOWN position closing off the lower floor entry.

A wooden armature defines the entry space and contains the functional components of the cafe, which are designed to fold out of and expand the armature. The wood surface then folds upwards to create a double-height space that connects the first-floor gallery with the 2nd-floor studios, forming a dialogue between the two spaces and bringing light in from above..

Project Name: Warehouse 328

Typology: Commercial, Interiors

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Year: 2015

Status: Complete

Size: 4,000 sqft

Client: Undisclosed

Collaborotors: None at this time

Design Team: Nathan Minett RA,

• Project executed while at OPerA Studio Architecture as Project Architect