Portfolio Category: Cultural

Located on the North Shore of Staten Island, the Sailor Snug Harbor campus was originally constructed as a community for retired sailors. Today, the campus functions as a cultural center with a unique collection of architecturally significant 19th century buildings used by various arts organizations.

H3 was retained to develop an expansion for the Staten Island Museum within the Snug Harbor campus. Originally founded in 1881, the museum’s programs and collections in natural science, art and history focus of the culture, history and geography of the borough. The museum engages visitors with interdisciplinary exhibitions and an extensive educational program for city school children.

The museum will occupy two of the five Greek-revival structures on the campus. These buildings are known as the “Front Five” and are designated as a New York City Landmarks and are also listed on the State and National Register of Historic Buildings. H3 is working to create comprehensive program of interior renovation that includes gallery spaces, administrative offices, classrooms, library, storage for the collections and ancillary public support spaces.

CLIENT: Staten Island Museum / NYC Dept of Design and Construction
COMPLETION: 2024
SIZE: 25,000 square feet
COST: $10 million

Arquitectonica’s 2001 project for the Miami Children’s Museum used the theme of earth, wind, water and fire to express the volumes and colors utilized in the final design. When joined, the parts provide a space where children can actively respond to and be engaged with their environment.

Expanding on that concept, the lobby expansion to the Miami Children’s Museum incorporates the concept of space into the composition. The 7,000 square foot expansion provides new lobby space, staging and storage area for school groups, a new café and expanded toilet rooms, while providing the museum with a flexible multi-purpose room, suitable for presentations, expanded exhibits and gala receptions.

The expansion utilizes the same concrete tilt up panel construction method of the original building. The planets are exhibited within the terrazzo pattern of the lobby floor, while the facade incorporates an interpretation of the solar system in its window grid. The color purple is used to designate the lobby expansion mass, contrasting it with the colors used to indicate earth, wind, fire and water.

CLIENT: Miami Children’s Museum
COMPLETION: TBD
SIZE: 7,000 square feet
COST: $3.5 million

In 2016, H3 (in partnership with KCS Architects) was awarded the commission to program and design a new arts facility for MoCo Arts, a non-profit arts education center in downtown Keene, NH. MoCo Arts, established in 1991, provides classes in dance and theatre to children ages 18 months to 18 years+ in an inclusive, nurturing, supportive atmosphere designed to enrich both the lives of their students, and community.

H3 designed a 17,000sf modern facility including the 2,500sf Founder’s Black Box Theatre, and three light-filled dance studios ranging from 1,200sf to 1,700sf. A bright, active lobby, support spaces and administrative spaces help create an active community within the building. The building fronts Roxbury Street in the heart of downtown Keene, with a contemporary façade sensitive to the historic vernacular of the neighborhood. An open plaza connecting the entrance to the sidewalk provides an intimate public space, encouraging community by activating the street life of a pedestrian friendly downtown.

The open, transparent lobby and windowed dance studios that front the street activates the neighborhood while providing a glance at the cultural activities within. With a restrained cost of $5 million, the design team proved that beautiful, iconic cultural spaces that support the arts and community can created at any budget.

CLIENT: MoCo Arts
COMPLETION: 2018
SIZE: 17,000 square feet
COST: $5 million

H3 produced a series of schematic design documents exploring the complete renovation of the Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn and possible expansion of the Goldman Education Center. With a total cost of $9 million, the work was organized to complete several smaller renovations over time using the set of schematic design documents for decades to come. With the sanctuary as the only component of the building that required updating for ADA and code compliance, work began with a focus on this area as a basis for the entire facility.

Totaling $2.5 million, the goal of renovating the sanctuary was not only to upgrade, but to also breathe new life into the space used for prayer, reflection, and study. The scope of work includes the design of a new set of movable pews, carpeting, structurally stable choir loft, Bimah and Amud, stair, men’s and women’s restrooms, finishes, and electrical upgrades and lighting along with working with consultants on a new fire suppression system, AV, and radiator refurbishment.

CLIENT: Kane Street Synagogue
COMPLETION: In Fundraising
SIZE: 10,000 square feet (renovation of entire facility) / 1,600 square feet (sanctuary only)
COST: $9 million (renovation of entire facility) / $2.5 million (sanctuary only)

The new LEED-NC Platinum headquarters for BRIT houses a variety of separate yet interconnected functions, divided into two structures: the “Think Block”, housing administration and research offices, education department, exhibit area, and public spaces, and the “Archive Block”, housing the herbarium and library.

The Think Block is a two-story structure of precast concrete panels punctuated with glass—broad expanses on the north side to bring in plentiful light and smaller openings on the south. A striking lobby greets visitor as they enter, featuring a grand central stair, reclaimed sinker cypress wall, and view through floor-to-ceiling glass to the restored prairie outside. The Archive Block houses the extensive collection of botanical specimens in the Herbarium, a two-story 20,000-square-foot climate controlled storage hall, together with a distinguished book collection found in the library stacks. Because of the delicate nature of the specimens, the structure is nearly windowless—a solid box of tilt-up concrete panels to provide maximum temperature and humidity controls.

On the concrete facades, overlapping vines of different patterns of foliage, texture, and color respond to changing sun angles and seasons. The sloping Think Block roof is a green expanse of informal patterns of regional sedums and grasses of the native Fort Worth Prairie. The interior character of the building is that of a work place, offering an environment where research, informed study, collaboration, and education can take place in a collegial, inspiring atmosphere.

The spirit of environmental responsibility is manifest in all components of BRIT’s new building. Sustainable features such as stormwater management, geothermal wells, solar panels, reclaimed and recycled materials, a green roof, and many others combine to achieve a LEED-NC Platinum Rating.

CLIENT: The Botanical Research Institute of Texas
COMPLETION: 2011
SIZE: 70,000 Square Feet
COST: $25 Million

The Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum preserves and interprets the maritime history and heritage of Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The new 19,580 square foot building replaces the Museum’s previous home that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina’s 30-foot storm surge. It houses exhibits and gallery spaces, meeting rooms, a production shop, administrative areas, and storage.

The main gallery is designed around the 30’ sloop Nydia; the use of glass as the primary enclosure of the main gallery creates a “ship in a bottle” effect, letting the Nydia be visible from the exterior especially when dramatically lit at night, to attract visitors to the Museum. Other smaller boats are suspended in a double-height gallery adjacent to the main gallery stair, allowing visitors to view all of the vessels from multiple angles.

The design of the museum incorporates a clapboard pattern on precast concrete panels on the north, west, and south facades, and uses metal fins for sunshading the glass on the east facade. The building’s porch structures, as well as interior wood detailing, make reference to coastal wooden pier structures.

The building is elevated to meet FEMA requirements for constructing within a Coastal A flood plain. In addition to creating a safe environment for artifacts, staff, and visitors, the elevating of the building allows for use of the space under the elevated platform by the Sea and Sail camp and for living exhibits. The building is enhanced by the development of the adjacent Biloxi Waterfront Park, as it will give visitors the opportunity to enjoy activities within the open air pavilion and playground.

CLIENT: City of Biloxi, Maritime and Seafod Industry Museum
COMPLETION: 2014
SIZE: 19,580 square feet
COST: $8 million

H3 designed and renovated the Dahesh Museum of Art, New York’s first museum dedicated to the acquisition, display, and curatorial exploration of nineteenth-century academic art.

Occupying a portion of the former IBM Building, a 43-story office building on Madison Avenue, the museum contains galleries for permanent collections and changing exhibitions, a 250-seat auditorium, a museum shop, a restaurant (Cafe Opaline), and offices.

The museum’s design represents a dialogue between the twentieth-century modernism of the Edward Larabee Barnes skyscraper it inhabits and the nineteenth-century objects on view. Although abstract in form and detail, the interiors, including a dramatic two-story red and gold backlit curtain wall, recall the earlier era through color, pattern, and a series of portals leading to the galleries.

Materials include bamboo floors, cabinetry, and trim; patterned fabric, and vivid paint colors. Exhibition lighting is adjustable, mounted on a suspended grid of power tracks. Gallery division walls, of metal studs and drywall, define temporary exhibition areas that can be easily reconfigured.

The museum store, at street-level, offers books, clothing, posters, decorative objects, and jewelry related to nineteenth-century design.

CLIENT: Dahesh Museum
SIZE: 10,000 Square Feet
COMPLETION: 2003
COST: $3.3 Million

Adas Israel (“the community of Israel”) was founded in 1869 and has grown to be the largest conservative synagogue in Washington DC. The current synagogue building, built in 1950 in the Cleveland Park neighborhood, is a multi-level, multi-purpose facility.

The worship services, school, and community outreach have evolved over the years, requiring a new approach. Adas Israel has embarked on an expansive building renewal project to reconsider how the activities, spaces, and circulation can best help the congregation achieve its goals for the future.

The master plan is a result of numerous meetings with both the leadership of the congregation as well as specific user groups. Surveys, questionnaires, and interviews were conducted to best understand the deficiencies of the current state of the building as well as future goals and priorities. All improvements focus on improving the building’s function, aesthetics, and representation of the Jewish faith.

In addition to new elevators and stairs to improve circulation patterns, improvements to each level modernize the building for contemporary use. On the exterior of the building, a new façade enhances the face that Adas Israel’s building presents to the city. The main sanctuary’s interior design and finishes were redone and seating and balconies were reconfigured to accommodate 1500 seats. The new Beit Midrash is the center of the building’s activity. All upgrades were phased to minimize disruption to building operations.

CLIENT: Adas Israel Congregation
COMPLETION: 2012
SIZE: 90,000 Square Feet
COST: Withheld at Client’s Request