The Shed
Since its debut in the spring of 2019, The Shed has rapidly become a fixture of New York’s cultural scene. As New York’s first center designed to commission, produce, and present all types of performing arts, visual arts, and popular culture, it is driven by experimentation, innovation, and collaboration. The Shed brings together leading artists with leading minds in the humanities and sciences in a program that is international, created with co-commissioning partners around the globe, and local, with early-career artists in residence in its creative lab.
Bloomberg Philanthropies gave $75 million toward the capital campaign for the new institution, contributing substantially to the creation of this cultural anchor in the emergent Hudson Yards neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan. The uniquely flexible $435 million building, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group, features a telescoping shell on rails that allows the structure to expand or contract, making it spontaneous and responsive to myriad creative forms and ideas.
The Bloomberg Building
The Shed’s 200,000-square-foot home comprises an eight-level base structure and, as part of the Bloomberg Building, a telescoping outer shell. The base structure holds two expansive, column-free galleries totaling 25,000 square feet; a 500-seat black-box theater that can be subdivided; event and rehearsal space; and the creative lab. The Bloomberg Building’s shell can be deployed over an adjoining 20,000- square-foot plaza to create a 17,000-square-foot light-, sound-, and temperature-controlled hall. The shell’s exposed steel frame is clad in translucent pillows of a durable and lightweight Teflon-based polymer called ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE).
Top photo: A dedication ceremony and ribbon cutting at Hudson Yards’ The Shed, ahead of the art center’s opening.