MOMA /
New York, New Publics MoMA Exhibition
We developed two drawings for the exhibition, which now proudly hang in our studio; one of them shows the timeline of deforestation along the east coast of the United States, to underline that the vibrant old growth forests that used to cover the US are lost, but much of the wood remains—now a hidden resource embedded into the existing building stock that should never end up in our waste streams. With this, we aim to underline the importance of wood as a public record, and the potential of building with wood to reforest the US. The diagram also shows the ability of trees to capture carbon dioxide—indicating that this captured carbon from the old growth forests is now embedded in our cities.
The second drawing is an axonometric depicting how the main programmatic elements of the retrofit—the theatrical rehearsal studios—are centered around the new bleacher staircase, which provides a social center for the building. It breaks out the wood elements - both old and new, and shows how the CLT was installed along a gantry crane hung from the original longleaf pine trusses.
The physical model we built was constructed at ¼” scale, entirely of wood and cork. The new structural wood elements inserted into the old structure (CLT and Glulams) were modeled in spruce, and the existing wood elements were modeled in the original long leaf pine that was reclaimed from the building—the same is true from the elements that were reinserted in the main assembly space and along the bleacher railing. The rest of the model was constructed basswood, painted white using a natural linseed oil paint that is entirely free of all solvents and VOC’s. It was important to us that this model represented our values in regard to carbon capture, healthy materials and reuse—and we used it to tell the story of how the new and old wood elements come together in the adapted building.
In 2023, MoMA exhibited our Timber Adaptive Reuse Theater as part of their inaugural exhibition titled Architecture Now: New York, New Publics. Our exhibition of the project focused on the story of its wood.
The MoMA selected four photographs of the building taken by Naho Kubota, one of which, depicting the assembly space in the building, displayed at 8 feet tall. Two original joist pieces were exhibited as well—one original longleaf pine joist from the building, uncut; and a second that has been cut to mimic the bleacher railing detail in the building. Both were lightly sanded, and then coated in a matt clear finish to ensure old lead containing paint didn’t flake.
Lastly, we sourced a historic photograph from the time these Long Leaf Pines were logged. The photo was part of the Thompson Lumber company collection, who operated in some form or fashion from 1852 until 1959. They were primarily interested in harvesting Longleaf Pine which has been almost completely removed in East Texas. Long Leaf requires some very specific growing conditions and the clear cut activities most companies practiced from 1880-1920 did not take into account modern conservation practices. The photo dates from between 1900-1910.
Architecture: CO Adaptive
Location: Manhattan, NY
Type: Arts & Cultural, Public
Values: Low Carbon
Exhibition Photographs: Courtesy of MoMA and CO Adaptive
Video: Hudson Lines, Pilcrow Studio