New York, New York, USA

“This is the first project in New York City to use mass timber to transform an adaptive reuse building, and we hope it will lead by example; exemplifying the capacity of mass timber to simultaneously reduce our embodied carbon and reinvigorate our aging building stock,” says CO Adaptive co-principal Ruth Mandl.

Designed and renovated by CO Adaptive Architecture, the new Mercury Store is a start-up space for theatre artists, from stage directors to choreographers and devisers, as a new cultural hub in New York City.

Originally a heavy industrial site housing a metal foundry in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, this double A-frame building has been transformed into a new developmental space for theater artists.

The project exemplifies low-carbon design thinking in three major ways:

First, it evolves our existing building stock through adaptive reuse to support an innovative new use, simultaneously reducing demolition waste and engaging with the history of the site.

Second, it repurposes removed building materials to create architectural features, while minimizing the use of virgin materials.

Finally, the structural insertions leverage low-carbon alternatives to standard construction practices by introducing mass timber from sustainably forested vendors within North America.

The design celebrates the existing heavy timber classification of the 1902 building by exposing the existing wood trusses and juxtaposing it with a new mass timber insertion to create bright, interconnected spaces. 

A gantry crane was attached to the existing timber trusses and used to slide new cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor panels into place on top of a system of glulam beams and columns.

Care was taken to repurpose, rather than erase, the materials and character of the brick and heavy timber building.

The removed timber joists were adapted into guardrail posts framing the central atrium and acoustic panel partitions in the main studios. 

The design celebrates the layered and rich history of the building and embraces its rugged and beautiful imperfections as a backdrop for the creative processes it will house.

Project: Timber Adaptive Reuse Theater
Architects: CO Adaptive Architecture PLLC.
MEPS Engineers: ABS Engineering
Structural Engineers: ADOF Structural Engineers
Acoustic Designers: Charcoal Blue
Lighting Consultants: SDA Lighting
General Contractor: Yorke Construction
Client: Mercury Store
Photographers: Naho Kubota