PROJECT NAME | The XI Visionaries Gallery |
LOCATION | New York |
FIRM | Gabellini Sheppard Associates |
SQ. FT. | 12,000 SQF |
Developed by HFZ Capital Group, the Eleventh is a block-wide beacon situated between the High Line and the Hudson River in New York City. Slated for completion next year, the mixed-use entity will house luxury residences, retail and art destinations, restaurants, and a Six Senses spa hotel in a pair of torqued travertine towers by Bjarke Ingels Group. Given the level of luxe, no ordinary sales space would do. So Interior Design Hall of Fame member Michael Gabellini and co-partner Kimberly Sheppard of Gabellini Sheppard Associates, who both also oversaw the interiors of the west tower condominiums, plus various amenities, converted a 12,000-square-foot storefront into The XI Visionaries Gallery. The experiential gallery touts the Eleventh’s philosophy and features by way of a trio of art installations by scenographer Es Devlin.
It’s a formidable introduction to the project. Gabellini describes the entry as “a black decompression void” that doubles as a pre-function area for events. On display is Devlin’s Egg, a concave Manhattan map spanning 33 feet. Just beyond is a theater exhibiting mirrored film strips, each cell a sketch or massing study that led to Ingels’s final design. Titled Paper, Stone, Glass, Water, the work “surrounds the viewer with the source of the architectural thought,” Sheppard says. Visitors passing through a lit scrim encounter a faux courtyard—an homage to landscape architect Enzo Enea’s contribution to the property—with a kinetic small-scale likeness of the towers’ asymmetrical twists. It’s the perfect prelude to the pair of model residences (one by Gabellini Sheppard, the other by Gilles & Boissier) complete with custom details, including gray-larch Bulthaup kitchens.
Project Team: Daniel Garbowit; Bobby Young; Gulay Dukkanci; Colin Martin; Ozlem Akcay; Kentaro Ishihara; Courtney Adams.