"The Facade" as an Institution

“Although the old facade has served us well, time has arrived for change. There is no reason why this new facade would not create a participatory history of its own. The resistance to the facade changing is identical people Storefront itself changing. People often say how much they like us the way we are, and that usually meant stay small and grass root. This rhetoric of ‘we like you to stay small’ us like telling children to never grow so we can forever adore them, Storefront is now old enough to grow into a size proportion to the age, will and potential. The notion of staying same is contrary to experiment, and one must always look for new and another things.”
- Kyong Park, “Violence in Collaboration”, 1991

In the early 1990s, then co-directors Kyong Park and Shirin Neshat initiated a bi-annual pubic art project to redesign the facade. Curated by Claudia Gould, The Facade project initiated in 1993 as a collaboration between Vito Acconci and Steven Holl. The project became the pivotal point in history of the institution.

“By Bringing Vito Acconci and Steven Holl to work together, Storefront encourages an effort in contrast to the tradition of collaboration. A tradition that is typically a partnership of compatibility here combines two different perspectives, one that disrupts and one that anchors. The two will work together from the beginning, from the conceptual design to the construction of the installation. Equal input and responsibility will produce a project that is neither art nor architecture, but its hybrid..”
- “Extended Narrative; Steven Holl and Vito Acconci”, 1993

In pursuit of cultural advocacy for art and architecture, the premise was to establish a place for “media architecture, mental architecture and virtual architecture.”

Acting as doors, benches, tables, and apertures, the hinged openings in the new facade provide multi-functional space for pedestrian and users of the gallery.

“By blurring the distinction between the art object and the architectural space and structure, The Acconci/Holl Project will also directly address Storefront’s concern with inter-disciplinary collaboration.”
-Shirin Neshat, “Lower Manhattan Buildings to Become Site of Major Public Art Project by Vito Acconci and Steven Holl”, 1993

“And while the practice of architecture coerced, profitably, with the neo-Disneyesque renditions of Robert Venturi’s decorated sheds, which ranged from the glossed headquarters of post-industrial corporations to rarefied postmodern theme parks—a built collection of virtual reality in nostalgias—StoreFront, instead and impetuously, carried on a serial of ideals on the future of environment.”
- Kyong Park, “Facade”, 1994

Through various exhibitions, the facade functioned as a mediator to tie the exhibition with the urban body of New York in different scales. An example of the small scale weaving of the exhibition with the pavement life is Queer Space (1994); the co-curated exhibition, in which pedestrians could engage with the audio projects placed on the pivotal panels.

The Bonewall (2006) is another example in which the facade amplifies the content and interlocks it with the bigger urban scale. In this exhibition the panels of the facade were removed, therefore the spectator could grasp the main exhibited structure even from the other side of street.

Given the evolution of the facade—from the utterly transparent display in Prince Street, to the wooden modest facade of Kenmare Street—the recent concrete surface with the volatile openings resonates an inside out gallery space. The facade impels the gallery towards the public space, and involves the passersby with whatever goes on in the gallery. The story of the institution is encapsulated in this facade, and the identity of Storefront revolves around its concept since the first day. The new facade has expanded the scope of the organization merely by shifting the level of spatial engagement, both inside and outside of the gallery. As the inevitable framework for every exhibition, the facade has a major role for this street-side gallery to stand out in the art zone of New York City.