An icon of Brutalist architecture in New York, the Breuer Building reopens its doors as Sotheby’s new global headquarters at 945 Madison Avenue. The adaptive reuse project, designed by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with New York-based PBDW Architects, respects Marcel Breuer’s modern legacy, preserving the weight and texture of the bush-hammered concrete and enhancing its sculptural presence on the façade with subtle lighting at dusk. The former home of the Whitney, the Met, and The Frick thus reactivates its public vocation with a new contemporary look.
Inside, the reconfiguration recovers the original gallery sequences designed for the Whitney and adapts them to the current needs of Sotheby’s exhibitions, auctions, and events. The removal of partitions restores spatial continuity to the exhibition levels, while the environmental systems and lighting have been updated to accommodate art and design with museum-quality precision. The new galleries open with exhibitions from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, the Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection, and Exquisite Corpus, alongside works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Maurizio Cattelan, in free exhibitions open to the public that extend Breuer’s vision of accessibility and the city.
Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron
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