Storefront for Art and Architecture

In 1992, Steven Holl and artist Vito Acconci were commissioned as a collaborative team to renovate the aging facade of the Storefront for Art and Architecture, one of few galleries dedicated to the exhibition of young architects in New York City. The Storefront project is the second collaborative effort by Holl and Acconci; their first work together was a 1988 urban plan for a growing arts community in downtown Washington D.C. sponsored by the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation.

The Storefront for Art and Architecture is situated on the corner of a block that marks the intersection of three distinct neighborhoods: Chinatown, Little Italy and SOHO. The gallery itself is a limited, narrow wedge with a triangulated exhibition interior, such that the most dominant structure for the Storefront for Art and Architecture is the building’s long facade. In fact, the history of exhibitions at the gallery was marked in the various cuts and layers of paint which exhibiting architects had imposed on and through this once-uniform surface.

Drawing from this history, neither Acconci nor Holl were interested in the permanence of the facade or the idea of a static gallery space. Seeking to introduce improbability and to puncture the facade, Acconci and Holl challenged this symbolic border which underlines the exclusivity of the art world, where only those on the inside belong. Using a hybrid material comprised of concrete mixed with recycled fibers, Holl and Acconci inserted a series of hinged panels arranged in a puzzle-like configuration. When the panels are locked in their open position, the facade dissolves and the interior space of the gallery expands out on to the sidewalk. If the function of a facade is to create a division separating the inside from the outside space, this new facade, in the words of director Kyong Park, is “NO WALL, NO BARRIER, NO INSIDE, NO OUTSIDE, NO SPACE, NO BUILDING, NO PLACE, NO INSTITUTION, NO ART, NO ARCHITECTURE, NO ACCONCI, NO HOLL, NO STOREFRONT.”