Adjaye Associates, with Cooper Robertson as executive architect, has completed the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. The Studio Museum's new location will open to the public on Saturday, November 15, with a celebratory Community Day. 

The seven-story, 82,000-square-foot (7,618-square-meter) structure is the first residence in the 57-year history of the Studio Museum that was specifically made for the organization's goals and initiatives.

The new building, which was made possible by a comprehensive campaign that has raised over $300 million to date, allows the Studio Museum to expand its program of internationally recognized exhibitions, strengthen its innovative Artist-in-Residence program, improve educational opportunities for people of all ages, and improve its service to a growing and diverse audience.

Exterior View of the Studio Museum in Harlem's New Building. Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem. Photography © Dror Baldinger FAIA

The Studio Museum is inviting the public to explore its first exhibitions, participate in art-making workshops, and take in performances, games, giveaways, and DJ sets all day on November 15. Admission is free for everyone. 

Celebrations will continue on Sunday, November 16, when the Museum will start Studio Sundays, a free event for all ages that includes storytime sessions, gallery presentations, guided family tours, and art-making workshops.

"With deep gratitude to our visionary founders, who dared to create the Studio Museum amid the ferment of 1968, and to all the Trustees, staff, campaign supporters, artists, curators, educators, architects, community members, and partners in the City of New York who have made the Studio Museum into what it is today, we welcome Harlem and all the world into the home we have dreamed of having," said Thelma Golden, Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

"Our mission as champions of artists of African descent and their practices is as urgent today as it ever was and is made all the more possible because of our remarkable new building," Golden added.

Black creatives' furniture, including pieces by Ini Archibong, Stephen Burks, Mac Collins, Charles O. Job, Peter Mabeo, Michael Puryear, and Marcus Samuelsson, fills the building. 

Interior View of the Studio Museum in Harlem’s New Building, Featuring the Stoop and the Grand Staircase. Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem. Photography © Dror Baldinger FAIA

"This magnificent building says to the world: Harlem matters. Black art matters. Black institutions matter. This new chapter was not inevitable. It was earned through decades of vision, stewardship, and belief and made possible by the generosity of a community of visionary public and private donors, including our extraordinary Trustees who drove our campaign forward; our partners in  the Office of the Mayor, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Council, and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President; and, all of the artists, individuals, companies, and foundations that stepped forward to support the campaign," said Raymond J. McGuire, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Additionally, the building will have specially designed tables manufactured by Sefako Tolu, a partnership between Sefako Ketosugbo and Tolu Odunfa Dragone, using beams from the Museum's previous location. 

The architectural design takes its inspiration from the brownstones, churches, and bustling sidewalks of Harlem. The masonry-framed windows of Harlem’s apartment buildings are echoed in the composition of a facade with windows of varying sizes and proportions. 

The neighborhood’s churches find a counterpart in a top-lit interior gallery with ample wall area for installing large-scale artworks and a central stair that provides lookout points from the landings. 

A set of glass doors, which can be opened in different configurations, welcomes people to descending steps that evoke the ubiquitous stoops of Harlem’s brownstones. The steps can be used as benches for watching lectures, performances, and films presented on the building’s lower level—or simply for relaxing in informal gatherings.

The Harlem-based landscape firm Studio Zewde created the dynamic landscape for the new building, which also features a rooftop terrace with breathtaking views of the surroundings. The terrace, which was designed as a place for socializing, introspection, and interaction, has sculptural seating and native plants that frame breathtaking views of Manhattan. 

Interior View of the Studio Museum in Harlem’s New Building, Featuring the Stoop and the Lobby. Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem. Photography © Dror Baldinger FAIA

A café run by the neighborhood family-run eatery Settepani on the museum's lower floor will strengthen the institution's ties to local companies and groups.

Since founding Adjaye Associates in 2000, David Adjaye has built a multicultural, international workforce that is inspired by the widest range of cultural conversations.

The practice works all over the world and has studios in Accra, London, and New York. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the practice's most famous commission to yet, opened on the National Mall in Washington, DC, in 2016 and won the New York Times' "Cultural Event of the Year" award.

The Studio Museum in Harlem, which was established in 1968 by a diverse group of artists, community organizers, and philanthropists, is well-known throughout the world for its catalytic role in promoting the work of African American artists. 

The top image in the article: Exterior View of the Studio Museum in Harlem's New Building. Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem. Photography © Dror Baldinger FAIA.

> via Studio Harlem

Adjaye Associates cultural cultural building David Adjaye Harlem museum