By Aaron Ginsburg, Wed, September 14, 2022 All images courtesy of Mark Zhelezoglo for Hall des Lumières
A new permanent museum dedicated to immersive digital art experiences opened inside a New York City landmark on Wednesday. Located in Tribeca at 49 Chambers Street, Hall des Lumières sits within the former Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, which was constructed in 1911 in a Beaux-Arts architectural style. The museum’s inaugural exhibition, Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion, will feature animated projections of paintings by the famous Viennese painter across the former bank hall’s marble walls and columns. The exhibition also includes a presentation about the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank’s history and original design.
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By Aaron Ginsburg, Wed, February 9, 2022 Image courtesy of Culturespaces / Eric Spiller
A permanent museum dedicated to immersive art experiences will open this summer in Lower Manhattan. Dubbed Hall des Lumières, the art center will take over the former Emigrant Industrial Saving Bank building across from City Hall and feature animated and glowing 30-foot displays of famous paintings. Developed by French museum operator Culturespaces and IMG, the center’s inaugural installation will be Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion, “a thematic journey through the golden, sensuous and revolutionary art of the Viennese painter,” according to a press release.
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By Devin Gannon, Wed, May 6, 2020 Rendering of proposed exhibition space by Culturespaces/ Woods Bagot, courtesy of LPC
An art center with immersive art exhibitions has been proposed for a landmarked former banking hall in Lower Manhattan. Culturespaces, a French museum operator, presented its plan to adapt the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank into a center of digital art to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday. The design proposal from Woods Bagot Architects includes alterations to the landmarked interior to accommodate a ticketing area and necessary audiovisual equipment for the art center, as well as modifications to the exterior of the building.
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By Cait Etherington, Tue, September 11, 2018 Image courtesy of Michael Vadon’s Flickr
In 2010, Lower Manhattan was still deeply scarred by the attacks of 9-11. With much of the neighborhood under construction, a high vacancy rate, and few full-time residents, walking around the area, especially outside business hours, often felt like walking through a ghost town. It was, in many respects, a neighborhood in waiting.
Since 2011, which marked the opening of the 9/11 Memorial—and the symbolic end of the neighborhood’s long period of recovery from the 9/11 attacks—Lower Manhattan has undergone a transformation that is difficult to ignore. New businesses have opened, new residential developments have launched, the vacancy rate has drastically declined, and in many respects, an entirely new neighborhood has taken shape.
The dawn of a new Downtown
