World-famous architects well-known for commercial and retail projects are turning to culture, completing museum projects hear and abroad.
Miami-based Arquitectonica, which has designed scores of retail, mixed-use and restaurant projects internationally, on Oct. 7 will reveal its $19 million redesign for the Bronx Museum of the Arts, its first cultural commission in New York. The facade of the museum will feature dramatic, accordion-like aluminum panels, and the sides of the building will recall the Bronx row houses with masonry walls. Overall, the redevelopment will double the museum’s public space, create new areas for educational programming and add a major new gallery.
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Also in October, New York architect Peter Marino will take a break from his jaw-dropping flagships for Chanel, Fendi, Christian Dior and the like to reveal the design for the Oriental Gallery of the porcelain collection at Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in Germany.
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The new museum gallery will feature modern interpretations of historical designs, with gilded consoles, decorative tables, silk-covered walls and other refined materials. The gallery is set to open Oct. 15.
New York design firm STUDIOS Architecture partnered with Shawmut Design and Construction to complete the renovation of Exhale, a “mind-body spa” on Central Park South. The team added wood flooring, natural woven wall coverings, and new lighting schemes to the spa, and converted a lounge into a boutique. Exhale, which has eight locations in New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, California and Texas, plans to grow its portfolio to 15 spas.
In other market news, the Mills Corp. extended the close date for the previously announced refinancing of the Meadowlands Xanadu project to Sept. 27. Colony Capital Acquisitions will arrange for construction financing of the project and make an equity contribution to the joint venture developing Xanadu, effectively taking control of the development.