Artistic Reuse Done Righteously:
Hallwalls’ New Walls
By Barry Muskat
Excitement builds at Hallwalls as staff prepares for the grand opening of their new space in the restored landmark Asbury Delaware Church. Events the first week of November will kick off the celebration.
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The most endangered buildings in America
The re-use of churches in any city is problematic at best—one reason that churches are clearly the most endangered buildings in many American cities. Inner city parishes with declining memberships can’t afford their buildings, maintain them properly, or fill them with people. The deteriorating structures become obsolete, redundant, and superfluous. But these significant buildings need to be rescued. They can’t be built again: their craftsmanship and history cannot be duplicated.
Yet, for a multitude of reasons, churches are the very hardest of buildings to recycle. Unlike daylight factories or abandoned schools, which lend themselves to efficient re-use because of their wide-open spaces, sturdy construction, and broad windows, a church typically has interior spaces and vertical volumes that are extremely difficult to use. Buffalo can witness examples of major churches in adaptive reuse projects that are unsuccessful, where office spaces or condominiums have been created with insensitive thought to how the space is divided. The disastrous results leave awkward moments and collisions with architectural elements that are out of scale and piecemeal. Their legacy is a disturbing feeling of complete disrespect to the “saved” structure. Adapting a church into a theater or performance venue—such as Canisius’ award-winning Montante Cultural Center—is probably the most satisfying and successful use of a church that is no longer viable.
It’s a blessing to save a church, but if you’re going to adapt the building for another use, it’s important to do it right.
The Asbury project and Hallwalls
The Asbury Delaware Church project seems to have done just that. The architects at Flynn Battaglia were the lead team, designing the plans and coordinating construction to save and stabilize the original structure. They cleverly installed new mechanical systems while maintaining the integrity of the building and worked with the State Historic Preservation Office and the plentitude of issues that involves. They coordinated all the restoration work on the exterior and the original sanctuary.
Hallwalls gallery occupies prime space on the first floor of the Parish House. (Righteous Babe’s offices are on the second floor, and both organizations have excellent dedicated space in the large basement.)
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The stair tower is a structurally-exposed steel skeleton. Fully glazed, it has a wonderful transparency. The original stone of the exterior is minimally obstructed and can be seen at all levels right through the glass. Conversely, clear views to the exterior make the stairwell feel very open and provide a pleasant ascent/descent on the stairway. This contemporary addition is topped by a barrel-vaulted roof, echoing original shapes from the church. It is topped with classic copper, which will take on a patina as it weathers. Preservationists will appreciate that the tower is detachable and reversible; it has not intruded on the interior of the structure.
The gallery
Hallwalls was an early tenant in the Tri-Main Building, which offers excellent industrial space, but was unfortunately located too far away from Buffalo’s prime cultural districts. Nearing their thirtieth anniversary, the gallery is now about to unveil a first-class space on the edge of the Theater District, in the heart of the city, along desirable Delaware Avenue. Here they are featured in an important historic building, prominently off the main floor lobby, visible directly opposite the building’s new entry.
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Hallwalls director Ed Cardoni is shown
flanked by project architects Kristine Kemmis (left) and Matt Mancuso (right). Photo by Jim Bush. |
The story of the new Hallwalls is really about a gallery that functions as a special space-within-a space. Traditional churches tend to be about the vertical volumes; here, that volume has been preserved and respected. Housed in the sixteen-foot-high shell of the Parish House, the architects have built freestanding display walls. Those new walls are a generous twelve feet tall, yet the differential to the original ceiling leaves a four-foot space through which the visitor can see the historic fabric and interesting architectural elements.
Matt Mancuso, AR project architect, points out that the new gallery preserves a sense of the original space, saying, “Since it was one space to begin with, we wanted to maintain some characteristics—we wanted to see through the space.” As such, the new space-within-a-space celebrates the original church hall with features like columns marching across it and the original cornice line tracing the perimeter.
“During the design process, Kristine Kemmis and I conceived of the gallery space as a container for art within the historic building fabric of the church’s architecture,” explains Mancuso. “In fact, it serves Hallwalls’ programmatic needs while allowing the historic details of the space (i.e., cast iron columns, leaded glass windows, wainscoting) to be read and experienced,” he continues. “In addition to this, John Massier, Hallwalls’ Visual Arts Curator, requested that the gallery have ultimate flexibility for hanging shows, providing options for site specific installations and showing multiple artists at any given time. So included are a series of walls that pivot and slide through the gallery, allowing the space to be reconfigured in multiple combinations.”
These walls are key to the creation of a viable and interesting gallery space. They are asymmetrical and angled, so the gallery is not simply a static box within a rectangle. Some are permanent, while some give flexibility in hanging an exhibition. Mostly, the clean white contemporary walls stand in stark contrast to their historic backdrops. They will be capped with a glazed clerestory, which at the time of this writing was just being framed. Gallery floors and some wall panels will be natural birch plywood.
The new gallery walls stand apart from the original structure and define the “L”-shaped perimeter of new office space. Existing dark walnut wainscoting shows the building’s character. Bright colors are used in the offices, as opposed to the neutrals of the gallery. Occupants will enjoy wonderful natural light through expansive original windows.
It’s all about the windows
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It may be sacrilegious to say (and let’s be honest—what re-use of a church is not by its very nature sacrilegious?), but here it is just plain terrific that the windows are not ecclesiastic. In this particular church there are no biblical scenes, stories of salvation, saints, or sinners expressed in leaded glass. This church’s light and airy windows have no problem adapting to the building’s new use.
Much of the actual glass area is clear glass, frosted, or laced, each of which styles allow the unimpeded flow of natural light. Deep colors appear near the borders and in designs that are mostly floral or geometric. Of most interest are the windows on the second floor (Righteous Babe’s offices), which, frankly, are fabulous. They’re enormous in size and scale, filling the room with light. They’re simple and playful, with a childlike innocence in their depictions of huge candles outlined in bold colors topped by bright amber flames. The candles shed a festive light on the reuse of the building.
Columns, capitols, and geothermals
The architects removed the suspended ceilings with this restoration to expose the top portion of the unusual original columns and their capitals, which appear throughout the building. In the gallery, the column’s shafts are wrought iron: four slender cylinders in a compound shape, almost like elongated four-leaf clovers. The sanctuary’s columns are a different design, also cast iron with plaster capitals, which are simple swirls, a rather inventive version of classic Corinthian.
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An important aspect of the Asbury Church re-use is the installation of a geothermal heating and cooling system. “This is a relatively new and environmentally-friendly approach for providing climate control,” Mancuso explains. “This water-based system extracts or adds energy to the water while it circulates, and alleviates the need to use automobile-sized equipment next to the church and frees space within the building that usually accompanies modern HVAC requirements.”
“One of the coolest spaces in the country”
Hallwalls director Ed Cardoni, who has been intimately involved with every step of the planning and construction, speaks enthusiastically of their new location, predicting, “I think it’s going to be a big draw, and this is going to enliven another corner of downtown Buffalo, enlarge the downtown arts and entertainment district, and extend all the great developments that have already taken place or are underway in the Theater District, Allentown, Chippewa Street, and Elmwood Avenue.” He also praises their state-of-the-art facilities for contemporary visual and media arts and a perfect-sized venue for live music, both coupled with the meticulous restoration of a historic landmark. Cardoni continues, “I think 341 Delaware Avenue is going to be one of the coolest addresses to see art and to hear live music, not only in Buffalo, but anywhere in the country. It will be a creative hotbed and a gathering place for the community, especially young people.” Let’s hope he’s right, and that old people can enjoy it too!
Other local companies involved in the Asbury project include Lehigh Construction as the General Contractor. Construction Manager is Martin Knauss and Site Superintendant is David Duffet.
Barry A. Muskat is Buffalo Spree’s Architecture Critic and a frequent contributing writer.
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