Magazzino Italian Art
Spanish architect Miguel Quismondo conceived Magazzino Italian Art from an existing computer manufacturing warehouse off Route 9 in Cold Spring, New York.
The new building draws architectural components from the previous structure, repurposed within a larger design that doubled the square footage of the former space by completing the original L-shape into a rectangle, leaving a courtyard in the center, and creating a dialogue between the existing and the new addition. The state-of-the-art facility features more than 18,000 square feet of exhibition space as well as a library with more than 5,000 publications of Italian art.
The project pays tribute to Magazzino’s name, meaning “warehouse" in Italian, by reiterating its integrity as an industrial warehouse. The existing building has been striped to its basic components, while the addition is built with structural cast-in-place concrete and metal girders, creating a modulated repetition. The management of natural light, the different shells and the versatile height of the new structure establishes a distinction between these, while two glass connectors elegantly merge both parts together to allow for simple circulation.
Text from Magazzino Italian Art