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On the corner of Kent Avenue and South 4th Street near the Williamsburg waterfront, a charming brick building used to be a factory. Now, 333 Kent Avenue has been repurposed into a nonprofit arts and office space dubbed Williamsburg Biannual.
The adaptive reuse project was designed by Jorge Zapata, founder of JAZ Architects. It’s situated amid several prominent development projects on the East River waterfront.
Diagonal from Williamsburg Biannual is Domino Square, a new plaza by Field Operations and Studio Cadena, at the foot of Domino Sugar Refinery. To its north is 325 Kent, a signature project by SHoP Architects. And to its west, One Domino Square by Selldorf Architects.
The tongue-in-cheek name of Williamsburg Biannual is a “playful reinterpretation” of the red carpet gallery circuit we’ve become accustomed to, like the Venice Architecture Biennale. At Williamsburg Biannual, new shows won’t happen every two years, however. Instead, there will be two shows per year in order to help launch as many artist careers as possible.
Zapata, Williamsburg Biannual’s architect, also sits on the institution’s board together with old colleagues and friends from Yale including Irene Shum, Tom Morbitzer, Goil Amornvivat, and Divya Mahindra. The nonprofit artist space has a strong education mission, Amornvivat told AN. It was started in collaboration with the Williamsburg School for Architecture and Design nearby. “I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 24 years,” Amornvivat shared.
In Good Company
At 333 Kent Avenue, Zapata ideated new stories atop the existing 20th century building. These spaces contain the offices of JAZ Architects, but also terraces that overlook the Williamsburg waterfront, and all of Williamsburg Biannual’s high profile neighbors.
The addition is expressed in slats arranged vertically upon the volume, accentuating the horizontality of the brick coursing below. A thoughtful series of staircases connect the old and new volumes in a way that doesn’t interrupt the gallery spaces.
Galleries at Williamsburg Biannual go one story below grade. There, to the site’s corner on Kent Avenue and South 4th Street, Zapata decided to leave parts of the floor plate on the ground level open, so visitors have a multi-story viewing portal to draw their eyes upward. It’s also in the subterranean level where Zapata designed a theater for music and video installations.
A wide stair made of concrete provides space for museum goers to break off into conversations, drink wine, and blow off steam. This stair terminates with a wall that recalls Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute.
The first exhibition on view at Williamsburg Biannual showcased the work of Brian Alfred, an established artist that’s been on view at MoMA, Whitney, and Guggenheim. Williamsburg Biannual’s inaugural show consisted of paintings that straddled the line between art and architecture; they were Japanese-style architectural landscapes with 1980s new wave sensibilities.
Williamsburg Biannual’s opening also featured video art by Derrick Belcham, a Canadian film maker based in Brooklyn. After Alfred and Belcham’s exhibitions dismount, works by Nate Williams will introduce visitors to Hip Hop Architecture.
Williams’s show will open to the public this winter.
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