Wyckoff Exchange in Bushwick Brooklyn / by Andre Kikoski Architect

Wyckoff Exchange in Bushwick Brooklyn / by Andre Kikoski Architect

Andre Kikoski Architect shared with us the Wyckoff Exchange project in Bushwick Brooklyn. The 10,000 square foot project has successfully transformed abandoned warehouse with cutting edge facade. More photos and press release from the architect follows the break.

Wyckoff Exchange in Bushwick Brooklyn / by Andre Kikoski Architect
© ESTO/Francis Dzikowski

“We wanted to create an iconic building to speak to the neighborhood’s emerging future as a center of art and creative energy” says Kikoski, adding “so we designed a unique façade that is dramatic, inventive and inspired by the industrial qualities of the neighborhood’s past. And with cutting-edge technologies and construction techniques, we were able to look forward and transform this 100 foot long, eighteen foot tall and two inch deep façade into a contemporary mural of light and texture.”

Scheduled to open in winter 2010, the 10,000 square foot Wyckoff Exchange, at 22-28 Wycokff Avenue in Brooklyn’s emerging Bushwick neighborhood, will accommodate three retail tenants including a live music and performance venue (that will be called Radio Bushwick and is also designed by the firm) as well as an organic market and a boutique wine shop.

Wyckoff Exchange in Bushwick Brooklyn / by Andre Kikoski Architect
© ESTO/Francis Dzikowski

The design solution is highly inventive — relying upon motorized scissor door technology adapted from airplane hangars and factory buildings. The five pairs of moving façade panels create an ever-changing expression of tectonics and purpose. By day the panels fold up to create awnings for the stores and to shelter pedestrians. By night they secure the shops behind them and create an artful façade, which is defined by a glowing abstract gradient pattern of internally illuminated laser cut corten and stainless steel. This enigmatic work of art, executed on an urban scale, defines the Wyckoff Exchange as more than just a commercial structure.

“We chose materials for this façade that are both industrial and artistic” explains Kikoski. “Our focused use of just two materials to define this building elevates the urban quality and character of the neighborhood to something more. At dusk, the surface quality of the raw corten steel is elegantly transformed into a Rothko-like canvas by the setting sun, while the shimmering layer of perforated stainless steel just two inches behind it forms a perfect complement when the internal LED lights are illuminated.”

Wyckoff Exchange in Bushwick Brooklyn / by Andre Kikoski Architect
© ESTO/Francis Dzikowski

The project is representative of Andre Kikoski Architect’s style — it is dramatic and highly tactile, and is executed with an extreme economy of means. At once both simple yet complex, the design uses a modest kit of parts to create a highly sophisticated yet perfectly playful building. And with a richly textured material palette and carefully considered details, Andre Kikoski Architect transforms references to the neighborhood’s industrial character into an artistic statement that is bold, fresh and different.

Andre Kikoski Architect’s design philosophy for this building creates a dynamic, fluid work of architecture. Whether in the purposeful transformation of its façade, or the richly embroidered perforations of its façade gradient, even walking alongside it becomes a simple joy. As an expression of our trademark inventiveness and poetry and as an innovative approach to recycling buildings and creating a destination environment with an economy of means, the Wyckoff Exchange is truly a welcome development in this quickly evolving and dynamic neighborhood.

Wyckoff Exchange in Bushwick Brooklyn / by Andre Kikoski Architect
© ESTO/Francis Dzikowski

Cayuga Capital Management commissioned the project and has some 40 other properties in the area, and Kikoski sees this one as a prototype of adaptive reuse—low-impact architecture that can spread, easily and gracefully, throughout the neighborhood. The project is a promising sign of things to come.

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