ROCK
MEATPACKING
DISTRICT OFFICE III
New York, NY
3,700sf | 345m²
Completed 2020
Work—Fogarty Finger Architects
Photos—Connie Zhou
The client, an avid collector and board member at the nearby Whitney Museum, had purchased an untitled work by the Los Angeles-based artist Mary Corse. The reception space was designed around the painting with a dark plaster wall to highlight the unframed white canvas, an open ceiling with specialty track lighting, and deep overall room dimensions to give the work perspective. Slowly, the client procured other works by Günther Förg, Alfred Leslie, Stanley Whitney, Carmen Herrera, Andreas Gursky, Howard Hogkin, Diane Tuft, and Brice Marden to fill the walls of his new office.
A rigorous and warm palette—taupe lime wash, dark Venetian plaster, blackened steel office fronts, and pale white oak millwork and flooring—and a streamlined series of details and material transitions rationalizes the complex plan and ceiling conditions. The layout features workspace for twelve individuals while keeping a residential flair in the front of house and communal spaces. The client required a dining room for informal gathering and group lunches; the resulting north-facing room, supplemented by an adjacent serving pantry, is anchored by a large table, soft seating, and an integral marble feature wall with millwork open shelving.