Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect and Rockwell Group, Collaborating Architect
Culture
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Completed
The Shed’s building—an innovative 200,000-square-foot (18,500 m²) structure designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect, and Rockwell Group, Collaborating Architect—is designed to physically transform to support artists' most ambitious ideas. Its eight-level base building includes two levels of gallery space, a versatile theater, a rehearsal space, a creative lab, and a skylit event space; a telescoping outer shell can deploy from its position over the base building and glide along rails onto an adjoining plaza to double the building’s footprint for large-scale performances, installations, and events.
When deployed, the Shed's shell creates a 17,200-square-foot light-, sound-, and temperature-controlled hall that can serve an infinite variety of uses. The hall can accommodate an audience of 1,200 seated or 2,700 standing; flexible overlap space in the two adjoining galleries of the base building allows for an expanded audience in the hall of up to 3,000. The shell’s entire ceiling operates as an occupiable theatrical deck with rigging and structural capacity throughout. Large operable doors on the Plaza level allow for engagement with the public areas to the east and north when open.
When the Shed's shell is nested over the base building, the 19,500-square-foot plaza will be open public space that can be used for outdoor programming; the eastern façade can serve as a backdrop for projection with lighting and sound support. The Plaza is equipped with distributed power supply for outdoor functions.
The building is able to expand and contract by rolling the telescoping shell on rails. The Shed’s kinetic system is inspired by the industrial past of the High Line and the West Side Railyard. Through the use of conventional building systems for the fixed structure and adapting gantry crane technology to activate the outer shell, the institution is able to accommodate large-scale indoor and open-air programming on demand.
The Shed takes inspiration, architecturally, from the Fun Palace, the influential but unrealized building-machine conceived by British architect Cedric Price and theater director Joan Littlewood in the 1960s. Like its precursor, The Shed’s open infrastructure can be permanently flexible for an unknowable future and responsive to variability in scale, media, technology, and the evolving needs of artists.
The Shed’s back-of-house spaces, which include offices, mechanical spaces, dressing rooms, and storage, are located on Level 1 and the lower levels of the residential tower to the west, 15 Hudson Yards (designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect and Rockwell Group, Lead Interior Architect). This allows the bulk of The Shed’s base building to be devoted to programmable space for art.
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The Shed under construction, as seen from the High Line
Brett Beyer
The Shed under construction, as seen from the east
Brett Beyer
The Shed McCourt Plaza
Brett Beyer
The Shed McCourt Plaza
Brett Beyer
Rendering of The Shed Exterior, Shell Deployed
Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Rendering of The Shed and Lawrence Weiner’s IN FRONT OF ITSELF
New York
US
The Shed
04/2019
18500 m2
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect and Rockwell Group, Collaborating Architect
Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Elizabeth Diller (Partner-in-Charge), Ricardo Scofidio, Charles Renfro, Benjamin Gilmartin, Alina Agorokhova, David Allin, Sarosh Anklesaria, Charles Berman, Katrina Collins, Annie Coombs, Jason Dannenbring, Lillian Fitch, Laura Haak, Rosannah Harding, Anahit Hayrapetyan, Michael Hundsnurscher, Merica May Jensen, Robert Katchur, Soerynn Kim, Robert Loken, Meaghan Michael McElderry, Matthew Ostrow, Michael Samoc, Lisette Vargas/ Rockwell Group: David Rockwell (Founder and President) and Evan Tribus (Project Manager)
Sciame Construction, LLC
Thornton Tomasetti (Structure, Façade, Kinetic Engineering Services), Jaros, Baum & Bolles (MEP and Fire Protection), Hardesty and Hanover (Kinetic Systems Consultant), Vidaris (Energy Modeling Consultant), Tillotson Design Associates (Lighting Consultant), Akustiks (Acoustics), Fisher Dachs (Theater Consultant)
Cimolai (Structural Steel), Vector Foiltec (ETFE), C&S Walls, Insulated Glass, Villa (Reinforced Concrete)
Brett Beyer, Iwan Baan, Timothy Schenck
Curriculum
Founded in 1981, Diller Scofidio + Renfro is a New York-based interdisciplinary design studio with a focus on cultural and civic projects. DS+R completed two of the largest architecture and planning initiatives in NYC’s recent history: the High Line and the transformation of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The studio is engaged in two more projects significant to NY: The Shed and the renovation and expansion of MoMA. Most recently, the studio was selected to design the London Centre for Music and a new collection and research centre for the V&A.
Founded by David Rockwell, FAIA, Rockwell Group is an architecture firm that emphasizes innovation, performance and thought leadership in every project. Projects include Union Square Cafe; Warner Music Group; TED Theater; and set designs for 27 Broadway shows, the Oscars, and The Shed’s inaugural commission: Soundtrack of America. Honors include a 2016 Tony Award for Best Scenic Design and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award.
