Shoshana Reich

The brief for my design was to reconfigure the interior of 190 Bowery, an iconic building on the Bowery inhabited for many years by renowned photographer Jay Maisel. The mandate was to create not only a dynamic and functional office layout but also to design the street level as a public work space engaging civically with the community. I paid homage to Jay Maisel and imagined that my client was a photography-recruiting agency, one attracting edgy photographers with an authentic point of view. My inspiration was Maisel’s vision that “the drama in light exists not only in what is in the light, but also in what is left dark.” My concept attempts to highlight these dramatic relationships throughout the space. In order to draw passersby into the building, I created a vertical structure that cuts through the entire building, visible through large windows. The key architectural component is a billowing, irregular screen encircling an interior staircase that is suspended from the ceiling. The vertical circulation invites people to enter the structure and climb the stairs to each floor. My design strives to capture the essence of photography: capturing three-dimensional fluidity in a two-dimensional medium.