Project:

A proposed 5,000-square-foot, two-story retail space on 10th Avenue in West Chelsea, New York.

Description:

The Colombian clothing designer Amelia Toro planned to launch her U.S. flagship store in New York City. The design proposed is for a 2 story, 5,000 square foot building that is to be converted to Retail space on 10th Avenue in West Chelsea, New York. The existing building abuts New York City’s elevated Highline Park. This unique location provides the building with two ground planes and the potential of two “fronts” on two different elevations. 

The Eastern façade on 10th Avenue acts as the traditional storefront with a display window; This is the physical entrance for the shopper at street level. On the opposite side of the building runs the elevated train trestle that has become the elevated ‘Highline Park’. This elevated ground, on level with the roof of the existing building, is a second and equally important ground plane and our Tabula Rasa. This provides a penthouse display window and virtual entrance that protrudes from the existing roof. As throngs of locals, tourists and visitors stroll through the elevated park’s promenade, the notion of storefront is altered. Similarly, upon entering the store from 10th Avenue, views of the sky and the Highline are revealed at a diagonal axis.

The solution is the addition of penthouse as display protruding the existing roof that acts as front window to the new ground plane with a deep cut through the existing building connecting the street to the elevated park. As one enters from the 10th Avenue the presence of the sky and highline at a diagonal axis is revealed. From the Highline, one’s eye is drawn into the glass window of the penthouse.

The exterior facade is made of woven cables that begin to unravel into the interior retail space, up through the void to the penthouse. These threads act as connective tissues, engaging dynamic elements of display, while gesturing toward the intersection of the two planes. The display can be suspended in between floors, suggesting to the viewer on the upper ground plane of the connection to the lower level and street on 10th Avenue. The pattern used for organization and circulation within the space was inspired by the designs of Amelia Toro, whose styles draw upon techniques of indigenous forms of craft.