From 1984 to 1994, SITE occupied a ten thousand sq. ft. office in architect Louis Sullivan’s famous Bayard Building at 65 Bleecker Street. Inspired by the spatial divisions in wood that Sullivan frequently designed for banks and commercial buildings of the 1890’s, this new architectural interior is articulated by scrim partitions, fabricated with the wire lathe material normally used for internal support in plaster walls. The result is a series of semi-transparent exhibition and working spaces that allow the studio to be flooded with light during daylight hours. The scrim walls also offer an infinite variety of perforated surfaces for hanging art works, process documents, architectural models and tools of the profession. In addition to the general renovation, all of Sullivan’s floral-themed column capitals and interior cornices have been carefully restored.
