AFAS to build new HQ bldg in Winston's Arts District

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Art for Art’s Sake, a local nonprofit that spearheaded the city’s urban park ARTivity on the Green that opened earlier this year, announced this week plans for a downtown headquarters. Idea for the headquarters stems from a desire to provide local artists with affordable studio space, something the president of the non-profit  Harry Knabb says is lacking in the area. Part of the second floor will be home to 10 artist studios.  It also will house the Unleashed Arts Center, AFAS’ boardroom and about 2,000 square feet of leasable space. Red Dog Gallery will relocate from Trade Street to the first floor, along with Studio 2, a jewelry studio and educational space currently on Sixth Street. Knabb says he expects the rooftop to be available for receptions and offering “the best view of Winston-Salem.”.

 Construction will begin on a 14,000-square-foot three-story building at the corner of Liberty and Seventh streets in March.  The  building will face south, with ARTivity on the Green essentially to be the “front lawn.”  The architects did a study across the world looking for art-centric buildings with the goal of having the new headquarters building be “a modern icon for Winston-Salem.”   “We have been studying arts-based buildings around the world,” Knabb said. “The park is going to be the front yard of the building. It will all tie together. It will have a lot of glass, balconies, maybe a cantilevered extension. It will not be a square box.”  AFAS headquarters is expected to be completed by March 2017.

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/art-for-art-s-sake-announces-building-plan/article_8b01f6d4-680d-510c-928c-28fe5cf6aba6.html?mode=story

 

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This really puts an exclamation point on the Downtown Arts District!

The Winston-Salem Journal reports that Art for Arts Sake unveiled the plans for its new building during the annual meeting of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership Tuesday morning.  The three-story building will be a modern design with translucent walls and red highlights that echo the red pipe sculpture and other fixtures in the nearby ARTivity on the Green park that the arts group opened last year.

"The cool part is that the white you see on the building is polycarbonate, a translucent material that will give a diffused light to the studios," said Harry Knabb, the chairman and chief executive of AFAS. "At night they will be backlit, so the building will glow. The red highlights and the whites are ... almost like a Rubick's Cube."

Made possible by a gift from the Thomas J. Regan Jr. Foundation, the new building will have 14,500 square feet of space and consolidate AFAS functions in one location. In addition, the building will make it possible for the group to provide studio space to artists.  The ground floor of the building will be the new home for the Red Dog Gallery — a showcase for works by local artists — and Studio 2, which sells jewelry and other wearable art. The gallery will have 14-foot ceilings.  The second floor will have the Unleashed Art Center, with programs for young people and other emerging artists. And it will have 10 affordable artist studios.

The top floor of the new building will have an AFAS board room that can be rented out for other purposes, and it comes with a balcony that overlooks ARtivity on the Green. Also, the third floor will contain a 2,200-square-foot office that will be rented out and provide a source of income for AFAS.

Architect Adam Sebastian of Stitch Design said that the AFAS building was designed to give the group "ground-floor visibility" with lots of glass. The translucent walls on the second and third floors will serve a double function: In the daytime they will provide a diffuse light that will be of help to the artists in their studios, and at night the lights inside the building will create a distinctive glow visible from the outside. "There is not a building in the Triad that actually has that," Sebastian said.

Sebastian said that polycarbonate is a type of plastic with a honeycomb construction that actually has better thermal performance than glass.  

source: Wesley Young, WSJ.

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Updated construction photos of the AFAS Building being constructed next to ARTivity in the Park. This is be a great addition to the Arts District in Winston-Salem. The three-story building will be a modern design with translucent walls and red highlights that echo the red pipe sculpture and other fixtures in the nearby ARTivity on the Green park.

The building will make it possible for the group to provide studio space to artists.  The ground floor of the building will be the new home for the Red Dog Gallery — a showcase for works by local artists — and Studio 2, which sells jewelry and other wearable art. The gallery will have 14-foot ceilings.  The second floor will have the Unleashed Art Center, with programs for young people and other emerging artists. And it will have 10 affordable artist studios.

The top floor of the new building will have an AFAS board room that can be rented out for other purposes, and it comes with a balcony that overlooks ARtivity on the Green. Also, the third floor will contain a 2,200-square-foot office that will be rented out and provide a source of income for AFAS.  The translucent walls on the second and third floors will serve a double function: In the daytime they will provide a diffuse light that will be of help to the artists in their studios, and at night the lights inside the building will create a distinctive glow visible from the outside. It will be one of the most distinctive buildings in the Triad.

 

Photos courtesy of blogger Dogwood.