Almost twelve years after first opening up shop in Soho, LEICA has inaugurated a second store and gallery in the Meatpacking District in New York City. The store occupies a former 1950s meat market, the original building had fallen into disrepair due to years of neglect. Redeveloped by local practice Formal Architecture Office, the building has been entirely redeveloped and modernised, featuring 4,000 sq.ft. (372 sqm.) spread across two floors. The renovation has been executed with respect of the building’s architectural legacy. The new façade of the LEICA store includes a steel and glass storefront and entrance, connecting the building to its industrial past while also opening up the street level for visibility and access to natural light. The façade’s main feature is a brick screen volume and banded frame, which is a nod to the decorative brickwork reliefs found throughout the neighbourhood.
And that’s not all. An embedded light system gives the design an additional visual edge. The interior design, created by Munich-based design practices Holzrausch and OHA, has retained the original timber-framed ceiling as another reminder of the building’s industrial past. The second-floor plate was cut back to create a sizeable double-height mezzanine at the front of the space. At the back of this floor, a newly installed glass door opens onto a 1,000 sq.ft. ((93 sqm.) outdoor terrace can be found. The new LEICA store carries the brand’s full range of cameras, lenses and accessories in an immersive setting. Additionally, the premises offers ample space to exhibit work of both local and globally acclaimed photographers, and also hosts a wide variety of workshops under its Akademie programme. © superfuture
LEICA
406 West 13th Street (Meatpacking District)
New York, NY 10014
Telephone +1 332 2221690
Mon-Sat 10am-6pm
Sun 11am-6pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
