{"id":55642,"date":"2019-11-04T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T13:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retrofitmagazine.com\/?p=55642"},"modified":"2023-03-15T12:13:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T16:13:04","slug":"a-100-year-old-building-featuring-salvaged-wood-provides-context-for-an-artists-creations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retrofitmagazine.com\/a-100-year-old-building-featuring-salvaged-wood-provides-context-for-an-artists-creations\/","title":{"rendered":"A 100-year-old Building, Featuring Salvaged Wood, Provides Context for an Artist\u2019s Creations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The client, Richard Mirach, is an artist who is an internationally acclaimed photographer. His work is monumental in scale and content, navigating topics that are political and aesthetic. His art is collected and exhibited by museums worldwide. The Alcatraz Photography Studio (named for its location\u2019s view of the famous island) in Berkeley, Calif., provides the artist with a space within which he can design and mock up full-scale exhibit layouts with museum-quality lighting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original building\u2019s function and year of construction are lost to history; it appears about a century old. When Misrach purchased the property, it was being used as a costume store whose rabbit-warren rooms, overflowing with inventory, obscured the structural system and materials of the original building. Transformed for its new purpose by Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects, Berkeley, the project exposes and seismically upgrades the building\u2019s masonry shell and gable roof. Eliminating an existing upper-floor structure, partition walls and old finishes enabled the creation of a lofty exhibit Gallery overlooked by a Mezzanine for ancillary work spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n