21-27 Ninth Ave

These four former residential structures are among the oldest and most prominent in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Their restoration and expansion offer an opportunity to highlight the contemporary character of the district-wide commercial renaissance. The unabashedly visible new 4th floor signals a transformation from within of these worthy survivors, and the respectful restoration burnishes their historic significance. Together, they combine to make this diminutive complex a symbolic gateway to one of the New York’s most vibrant neighborhoods.

In addition to an exquisitely detailed and historically appropriate renovation, BKSK designed an unapologetically modern expansion, and storefront insertion, uncompromising in its use of contemporary architectural language and material such as COR-TEN steel and aluminum paneling. Conceived as a single volume to facilitate straightforward construction, the rooftop addition is detailed to appear from the street as three volumes, proportioned to allude to industrial freight cars, which once trundled by on the elevated rail tracks above Ninth Avenue.