NEW YORK CITY—New York City's newest cultural center, the Shed, opens on April 5. It's topped with an ETFE polymer (translucent plastic) shell supported by a steel frame that glides along a track on wheels. The hood can slide in a telescopic way to expand, contract and create an open-air amphitheater space. The structure resembles a gigantic, Space Age Conestoga wagon for pioneers of the arts to travel into the future.
The project was to be "an anti-institutional institution that will be responsive to the ever-changing needs of artists in all media, at all scales, indoor and outdoor into a future that we cannot predict," Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the lead architect, said at the April 1 building dedication ceremony.
She explained, "Architecture is slow, heavy, geo-fixed and not very agile in addressing change. The architecture had to be different."
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
