Bread and Roses. Member spaces at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East’s Manhattan headquarters by Adjaye Associates
31/10/2020.
[NYC] USA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Project description by David Adjaye
The Public Member Spaces for the new headquarters of the 1199SEIU— the largest health care union in the United States— is a project that aims to embody the principles, ethos, and achievements of its tenant. With a galvanizing history since its founding in 1932, the project holds the spirit of the union which works to organize and efficiently consolidate all operations under one roof. As a space of social justice, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself referred to the union as “the authentic conscience of the labor movement”, the design concept is born out of the engaged and politically active community of 1199SEIU.
The original SEIU building contains the Anton Refreigier mural which is replicated in the entry-level lobby and is the inspiration for the continuous ceramic tiled walls that unites all of the member-facing spaces extending all four floors. The mural acts as an inspiring archive through a depiction of key moments that highlight milestones in the SEIU’s fight for labor rights since its founding. Additionally, another unifying feature is the continuous barrel ceiling vaults made from glass fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRG) cement which allows for ceiling heights that celebrate the resilience of the union. This coalescing element functions as an exhibition space to display the history, strength, and mission of the 1199SEIU.
The central circulation void—the beating heart of the new unified space—not only openly connects all four floors but establishes a quadruple height feature wall. Starting at the ground floor, the original mural imagery depicting Hospital, Guild, and Drug division workers transitions to an image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. giving his ‘Salute to Freedom’ speech to 1199ers in 1968 as it ascends the height of the member space.
Along with embodying the purpose of the member-facing spaces, the words from Dr. King as well as James Oppenheim (in ‘bread and roses’) also functions as the organizational strategy for the ceramic tile imagery and bronze lettered quotes. The union auditorium and enrollment spaces on level 2 are surrounded by images and quotes celebrating the history and freedom that Dr. King spoke to in 1968, while level 3 represents the ‘roses’ (wellness/pension/retirement) and level 4, the ‘bread’ (training, employment, health care) that Mr. Oppenheim called for.
Crafting all member-facing spaces in this new project in a cohesive and historically rooted language not only instills pride but positions the new lobby space as a central unifying force and symbol of the goal to empower the community of 1199SEIU.
David Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1966. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen, and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine, he led a privileged life and was privately educated. He earned his BA at London South Bank University, before graduating with an MA in 1993 from the Royal College of Art. In 1993, the same year of graduation, Adjaye won the RIBA Bronze Medal, a prize offered for RIBA Part 1 projects, normally won by students who have only completed a bachelor's degree.
Previously a unit tutor at the Architectural Association, he was also a lecturer at the Royal College of Art. After very short terms of work with the architectural studios of David Chipperfield (London) and Eduardo Souto de Moura (Porto), Adjaye established a practice with William Russell in 1994 called Adjaye & Russell, based in North London. This office was disbanded in 2000 and Adjaye established his own eponymous studio at this point.
Recent works include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, and the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management completed in 2010. On April 15, 2009, he was selected in a competition to design the $500 million National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., planned to open in 2015. His design features a crown motif from Yoruba sculpture.
Alongside his international commissions, Adjayes work spans exhibitions, private homes, and artist collaborations. He built homes for the designer Alexander McQueen, artist Jake Chapman, photographer Juergen Teller, actor Ewan McGregor, and artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. For artist Chris Ofili, he designed a new studio and a beach house in Port of Spain. He worked with Ofili to create an environment for the Upper Room, which was later acquired by Tate Britain and caused a nationwide media debate. He also collaborated with artist Olafur Eliasson to create a light installation, Your black horizon, at the 2005 Venice Biennale. He has also worked on the art project Sankalpa with director Shekhar Kapur. Adjaye coauthored two seasons of BBC's Dreamspaces television series and hosts a BBC radio program. In June 2005, he presented the documentary, Building Africa: Architecture of a Continent. In 2008, he participated in Manifesta 7.
In February 2009, the cancellation or postponement of four projects in Europe and Asia forced the firm to enter into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a deal to stave off insolvency proceedings which prevents financial collapse by rescheduling debts – estimated at about £1m – to creditors.
Adjaye currently holds a Visiting Professor post at Princeton University School of Architecture. He was the first Louis Kahn visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and was the Kenzo Tange Professor in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design. In addition, he is a RIBA Chartered Member, an AIA Honorary Fellow, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. He also serves as member of the Advisory Boards of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture and the London School of Economics Cities programme.
The studio's first solo exhibition: "David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings" was shown at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in January 2006, with Thames and Hudson publishing the catalogue of the same name. This followed their 2005 publication of Adjaye's first book entitled "David Adjaye Houses".
http://www.adjaye.com