CMU School of Drama


Friday, April 12, 2019

The Shed Makes A Bold Statement

www.livedesignonline.com: A major performing arts center has opened in New York City to quite a bit of fanfare. The Shed, opened on April 5, 2019, has not only made a bold architectural statement but will also make a splash with its innovative programming. The Shed’s Bloomberg Building—an innovative 200,000-square-foot structure was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, lead architect, and Rockwell Group, collaborating architect, and is the showpiece at Hudson Yards, the new mix of luxury apartments and shopping on Manhattan’s west side.

3 comments:

Nicolaus Carlson said...

I remember reading an article about this building when it was under construction. The article focused on the sliding section of the building. This article gives an overview of the building. It seems like quite a building. It is beautiful and appears well though tout. The exterior picture really does the building justice because while it is bold it is also amazing and fantastic. The inside is clearly thought out and very modern. I would love to see this building one and visit it in its entirety. The floor layouts are described, and I am quite interested to see what goes on within the building. It has two floors dedicated to gallery and museum like spaces. There appears to be a quite lovely plaza with skylights and labs throughout the building. Of course, you can’t forget the theatrical spaces as well. There is a picture of a beautiful skylight over one of the rehearsal spaces. This building, to put it simply seems quite impressive.

Sophie Nakai said...

I think that this is a really cool building that was built very effectively. The part where they talk about how the "outer shell" of the building can deploy to make the whole thing larger is a very interesting and space effective idea. A lot of times people build theaters and then they are not used for a large portion of the year so they are not cost and space effective. This allows this building to be space effective, I do not know how cost effective it really was. I would love to see that mechanism in action because I think it is really cool and I have no idea how it works so I think it would be really interesting to watch that happen. Another thing I really liked was the room with the sky roof. That is a super cool performance space because natural lighitng is always tricky but it can be super cool so I am excited to see what happens there.

Reesha A. said...

I think that this building is a great example of how hard-to-achieve innovative ideas can turn into reality with the effective and efficient use of technology.
Just by the article, one can figure out of how architecturally appealing The Shed is: with its silver exterior, glass like panels and a geometric inclination towards triangles. But what stands out about this building, I believe, is its use of technology to increase its square footage as and when needed.
The article says that "the most unusual architecture feature is the telescoping outer shell that 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" (LiveDesign). I feel like enabling a structure to alter its overall area for such purposes is a very pragmatic decision because one never knows what are the requirements of any particular event until and unless they can try all of their option.
I believe that this building would garner more attention because of these features that it harbors.