Townhouse takeout: Fort Gansevoort serves up art with a side of BBQ

Left image: white wall, wooden floor with wooden staircase and black metal frame, blurred image of female walking down the stairs, Right image: red brick town house, daytime, stone steps, black hand rail, rustic wooden door and windows, branches frame left hadn hand rail at the side of the house, round black lantern lights on either side of the door way

Fort Gansevoort is a new gallery, shopping and dining destination that occupies a red brick, Greek Revival row house built in 1849 on Gansevoort Plaza

(Image credit: TBC)

By Ali Morris

last updated 22 August 2022

in News

Opened last month in New York's gentrified Meatpacking District, Fort Gansevoort is a new gallery, shopping and dining destination that occupies a red brick, Greek Revival row house built in 1849 on Gansevoort Plaza.

The new hybrid gallery model, which plans to house an ever-changing roster of creative tenants across its three storeys, is the brainchild of New York-based curator and art advisor Adam Shopkorn. '5 Ninth Avenue has sat idle without a tenant for close to two years now, and I never understood why a building would be vacant in such an in-demand neighbourhood,' says Shopkorn, whose new venture counts the High Line and the Standard Hotel among its neighbours. 'I wanted to clean up the building, and provide it with some love and care. The space is really all about collaboration. I think the last thing New York needs is another traditional gallery.'

Sympathetically restored with plenty of original features on show, the building's top two floors are given over to the Gallery, which is currently hosting a series of 40 small-scale ink drawings by celebrated Bronx-based graffiti artist CES as part of its inaugural exhibition 'That's My Name Talking'.

Meanwhile, an ongoing rotation of florists, jewellery designers, rare book dealers, record sellers, coffee makers and bakers will occupy retail posts set up around the building's original small, medium and large bar areas – relics from its past incarnation as a dining establishment.

At street level, a takeout window located on the Little West 12th Street side of the building in the exterior courtyard will serve up barbecue food by a cross-section of emerging and world renowned pitmasters, as part of a barbecue residency programme. Each pit master will bring their own personal recipes and hometown flavours to the Fort Gansevoort BBQ while sourcing their ingredients from the neighbourhood's few remaining local meatpackers.

Left image: Empty interior room, white walls, rustic wooden frame door and window, white wash wooden floor, dark wood ceiling beam, Right Image: Dark wood unit, door, mirror backed with glass shelves, small white potted plant pots with plants, round stone and glass ornaments — The brainchild of New York-based curator and art advisor Adam Shopkorn, Fort Gansevoort will have an ever-changing roster of creative tenants spread across its three storeys

Interior hallway, dark wooden floor, brick wall with three far windows letting in daylight, wooden stairwell with metal hand rail to the right, dark wood strut ceiling, white wall to the left with a symmetrical row of small wooden framed pictures — Sympathetically restored with plenty of original features on show, the building's top two floors are given over to the Gallery

White wall, light wood framed picture, artist sketch of garlic cloves — Forty small-scale ink drawings by celebrated Bronx-based graffiti artist CES are currently being showcased as part of ithe Gallery's inaugural exhibition 'That’s My Name Talking'

Left Image: Dark wooden floor room, dark wooden strut ceiling, end brick wall with three windows letting in light, white walls to left and right, top of wooden stairwell looking down into room below, Right image: small bar area, window, two wooden stools, wooden floor, brick wall, drinking glasses of shelving unit — The building's original small, medium, and large bar areas (relics from its past incarnation as a dining establishment) have been transformed into retail posts

Long room, wooden floor, wooden stairwell with black hand rail, white wall to the left, brick wall and bar area to the right, far end high wooden framed windows letting in light, dark wood ceiling — The bars will be occupied by an ongoing rotation of florists, jewellery designers, rare book dealers, record sellers, coffee makers and bakers

Side street of the building, grey concrete paved floor, small black stairwell with hand rail, mesh fence with planters at the base and thick bushes and hedges at the top of the shot — At street level, a takeout window located on the Little West 12th Street side of the building in the exterior courtyard will serve up barbecue food by a cross-section of emerging and world renowned pit masters as part of a barbecue residency programme

White rustic wall, dark wood shelving bar unit, two pictures in gold frames, drinking glasses on a shelf, books, Stone ornaments on the top shelf — 'The space is really all about collaboration,' says Shopkorn. 'I think the last thing New York needs is another traditional gallery'

ADDRESS

Fort Gansevoort
5 Ninth Avenue (Gansevoort Street)
New York, NY 1001

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Ali Morris is a UK-based editor, writer and creative consultant specialising in design, interiors and architecture. In her 16 years as a design writer, Ali has travelled the world, crafting articles about creative projects, products, places and people for titles such as Dezeen, Wallpaper* and Kinfolk.

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