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Joan Weill Center for Dance
Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation Gets
a New Home
by Amy S. Choi
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When
it's completed, the new $55 million, eight-story project
will be the largest space devoted to dance in the entire
country.
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The Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation is dancing its way home
in New York.
The journey began in October 2002 when the company danced
from its existing facility on 61st Street to the public groundbreaking
of its new home a few blocks south at 55th Street and Ninth
Avenue.
The new $55 million, eight-story property, dubbed the Joan
Weill Center for Dance, will be the largest space devoted
solely to dance in the entire country when it opens by the
end of the year. Besides the foundation, it will house the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II and the Ailey
School.
Though the decision to move into a new building came from
a soul-searching strategic planning session five years ago,
the development is nearly five decades in the making.
"This is a huge milestone in the field of modern dance,"
said Sharon Gersten Luckman, the foundation's executive director.
"The company is celebrating its 45th anniversary, and
this new building establishes Ailey as a cultural institution
in the country."
The company will move in October from a rented warehouse
space on 61st Street and Amsterdam Avenue, where it was not
uncommon to be holding a meeting and have African drumming
overtake the conversation.
Since purchasing the property for $8.6 million in June 2001,
the company has been involved in the development with the
project team. The project's architect is Iu & Bibliowicz,
of New York, N.Y. and Tishman Construction Corp., of New York,
N.Y. is the project manager.
There are 12 studios in the nearly 80,000-sq.-ft. building,
two of which open up into one large informal performance space
with telescopic seats that are lowered from the ceiling. There
are six stories above ground and two below, all of them with
plentiful windows.
The windows are meant to bring in light - and the public.
"The key to all of these spaces was access to natural
light and to the community," said Natan Bibliowicz, partner
at Iu & Bibliowicz Architects LL.P. "Ailey wanted
to bring dance to the community, so we made sure to have the
studios envelope the space so that the public could see dance
from the street."
A glass curtain wall system on the east and south facades
of the building, facing both 55th Street and Ninth Avenue,
will visually connect the dancers inside with the community
outside. In addition to an open plaza to invite the public
into the Ailey area, there will also be studios at ground
level.
In order to balance the need for openness with the need to
give the students and performers enough privacy to rehearse
without distractions, passers-by will also often be looking
at paintings of the dancers from many views.
The interior of the building maximizes the space. Its L-shaped
core is hugged with the studios and offices, many of which
have lobbies and warm-up space. The main feature of the interior
will be a grand staircase that can also serve as a meeting
place for students and faculty members.
"This building has a high level of finish to it,"
said Nancy Czesak, vice president and project executive of
Tishman Construction Corp. "It's an elegant space and
so different from the rented warehouse loft they had before."
But as with any development, there were obstacles. This year's
harsh winter created delays for the steel and concrete subcontractors
working on the foundation of the property. On one visit to
the site last winter, Bibliowicz saw an iron worker torching
his gloves to warm them up.
There was an eight-month delay when the project team discovered
that the sliver brownstone next door, which has an exposed
brick wall, was not stable. Tishman had supports put on the
brownstone in a preventive measure, but in the meantime could
do little but some excavation and preconstruction work on
the opposite side of the site.
In the end, the stabilization process increased the construction
costs - which totaled $36 million - and delayed many of the
other trades, Czesak said.
"We tried to do everything possible to have the least
surprising project, but we never could have anticipated the
situation with the building next door," said Julio Villavicencio,
project director from Quartararo & Asscociates Inc., based
in New York, N.Y. and the owner's representative.
Still, with the highly involved team - Cushman & Wakefield
Inc., Structure Tone Inc. and Equitas America LLC, which donated
their work pro bono to help the company - to Quartararo, which
held weekly status meetings on the project, the new center
is slated to open on time this October.
"Alvin Ailey's one concern is to create beautiful things,"
Bibliowicz said. "Our job was to create an environment
that was very inspiring in which to create. They will have
that."
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