PROJECT Art Works Now

ARCHITECT McInturff Architects

LOCATION  Hyattsville, Maryland US

PROJECT COMPLETION DATE  8/1/2017

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TEAM  Mark McInturff FAIA, Colleen Gove Healey AIA
OWNER/CLIENT Art Works Now / Barbara Johnson, Executive Director
CONTRACTOR/CONSTRUCTION MANAGER  Added Dimensions / Alan Kanner
PHOTOGRAPHER  Julia Heine - Photography

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
CIVIL ENGINEER
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Neubauer Consulting Engineers / Robert Neubauer
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ELECTRICAL ENGINEER
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SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT  

Art Works Now is a nonprofit arts education organization in Hyattsville, Maryland, committed to community and to reducing economic barriers to participation in the visual arts. Through programs for students ranging from toddlers to elders, AWN brings arts education and creative opportunities, regardless of ability to pay, to an underserved population in a developing neighborhood, significantly diverse, ethnically and economically.

After years of occupying, and finally outgrowing, a rented facility in nearby Mount Rainier, Art Works was able to secure a derelict flower shop on US Route 1, immediately adjacent to the Hyattsville Arts District. Director Barbara Johnson was able to create an economic synergy when she
brought in Ruth Gresser—her life partner and owner of the successful Pizza Paradiso group of restaurants—to take nearly half of the building for a new, much-welcomed restaurant in a community underserved in both restaurants and art.

The new Art Works space preserves the1950’s roadside store/flower shop building, while renovating the already gutted interior to house two studio classrooms, a small gallery, with small offices on a partly expanded, and now accessible, second floor. The heart of the project is the colorful stairhall, which energizes everything and serves as entry, gallery, and gathering space. The building is designed so two more classrooms can be added on the top floor if future finances allow. (The restaurant is a legally separate entity with its own design & construction team and was not part of our project.) The existing building is now part of an energetic and colorful collage of new and old additions intended to make a new cultural landmark in this evolving strip of former repair shops and used car dealers.

This was a labor of love for the architects, and for all involved, from legal counsel to GC. The new facility is an architectural expression of this, and of the excitement generated within by the creative work spilling out the door.

Route 1 is better for this project, as is the Hyattsville Arts District, and as is this community who needs and deserves a place to discover and develop their creative lives.

JURY COMMENTS (If applicable)

[KY=Kim Yao (Chair)  KD=Kimberly Dowdell  TY=Takashi Yanai]

KY: I love the building section—it summarizes the ambition of the project.

KD: The project boldly transforms the existing building into a set of spaces that appear to foster great community impact, emphasizing the power of art.

TY: This is an interesting story—an example of great alignments in a project between design, owner and other partners. This is a community-centered project that successfully repurposes an existing building.

MEDIA FOR DOWNLOAD
Project/Jury PDF

IMAGES (Captions and Photographer Credit)

1. The stair hall is the vibrant center of the building. / Photo - Julia Heine
2. Front entry on Route 1 / Photo - Julia Heine
3. The stair hall is the vibrant center of the building. / Photo - Julia Heine

4. Entry facade fronts Route 1 / Photo - Julia Heine
5. Stair Hall detail / Photo - Julia Heine
6. Wall & ceiling detail / photo- Julia Heine
7. The stair hall serves multiple functions / Photo - Julia Heine
8. Gallery / Photo - Julia Heine