Hales Gallery

Hales Gallery is located on 20th Street in Chelsea on the street level of a residential condominium building. The gallery’s exterior façade is composed of a series of translucent glass windows creating an imaginative narrative of its interior and a testament to the minimalism that ensues upon entry. Following the buildings existing exterior layout, a concrete step and ramp platform with an understated blackened steel railing was introduced to signal the main entry and allow ease of access for wheelchair as well as transportation of large format works of art.

A small entry vestibule acts as a moderator of natural light and sound barrier from the adjacent West Side highway. A white monolithic reception desk signs the beginning of a perimeter gallery wall that surrounds the exhibition space. Three existing structural columns exposed in the middle function as space dividers for flexible curation of shows. Two doors on each end of the north exhibition wall lead to a director’s office, a viewing room, and a staff office and art preparation room surrounded by white-painted wooden cabinetry.

In stark contrast to the white walls and finishes stands the existing red terrazzo floor that was restored and adapted as part of the gallery’s character. An act of urban archeology that was decided at the onset of the project’s conception.