Artists Space opens new venue in Tribeca, designed by Bade Stageberg Cox

For its new home in Tribeca, Artists Space turned to BSC, where our design sensitively bridged the organization’s radical legacy with the material history of its cast-iron building, originally constructed in 1867. Working closely with executive director and chief curator Jay Sanders, principal Martin Cox—a board member and longtime collaborator with artists—led a renovation that emphasized subtlety and intentional restraint. “The challenge was how to make it look like we did very little—but, basically, we had to do everything,” Sanders explains. One of the most striking interventions is the addition of a new entrance through Cortlandt Alley, a move requiring Landmarks Preservation Commission approval. Once inside, a newly sculpted central stairway offers movement in every direction—up, down, left, or right—setting the tone for a space defined more by potential than prescription. The new two-level space supports Artists Space’s founding mission as a practitioner-driven, artist-centered venue for experimental exhibitions and performance. The renovation reflects an ethos of openness and modesty, echoing downtown loft aesthetics of the 1970s more than the polished neutrality of contemporary galleries. The flexible interior, preserved cast-iron columns, and quiet material choices all serve to recede institutional presence in favor of artistic control. With a 20-year lease in place, Artists Space is poised to continue fostering ambitious new work, maintaining its reputation as a key site of generative friction in the evolving cultural fabric of New York.