As thousands of New Yorkers filled Broadway to revel in the New York Liberty’s first WNBA championship on Thursday, October 24, an esteemed contemporary art gallery celebrated its own monumental move seven blocks away.
The block of 385 Broadway, where Marian Goodman Gallery has filled all five floors of a 19th-century Tribeca warehouse, had a brisk sereness to it that morning as a handful of press and VIPs got an early look at the new flagship’s inaugural group show, Your Patience Is Appreciated.
Don’t mistake the quiet calm for insouciance. The 47-year-old gallery’s decision to decamp from Midtown is perhaps Tribeca’s most anticipated grand opening of the year, one that could mark an inflection point for the neighborhood.
“We’ve been around for a while and Tribeca represents a new chapter in our storied history,” gallery Director Rose Lord told a small crowd in the lobby who gathered for a press preview. “We love being street level. It connects the artists with the lifeblood of the city.”
Marian Goodman first started exhibiting European artists who couldn’t get shows in American galleries in 1977, before moving her gallery to the fourth floor of 24 West 57th Street in 1981. The gallery has since represented contemporary artists including Nan Goldin, William Kentridge (who recently departed for Hauser & Wirth), Julie Mehretu, Gabriel Orozco, and Paul Sietsema while also managing the estates of Robert Smithson and John Baldessari, all without the flamboyance of its blue-chip peers. Mehretu, Orozco, Sietsema, and Smithson all have work in the current show.
The gallery’s location near the Museum of Modern Art was a draw, but in the years before the pandemic, Goodman’s partners and staff became uneasy with changes near Central Park. Ultra-luxury skyscrapers sprouted up while bookstores shuttered and other galleries left their building. Their street somehow became louder while foot traffic declined.
“When [the] Rizzoli [bookstore] closed, we saw the owner tear the building down and set it alight,” Marian Goodman managing partner Emily-Jane Kirwan said. “You no longer had as many pedestrians, and that culture was lost.”
In 2020, the gallery’s partners re-evaluated long-term plans for a flagship and searched Harlem, Chelsea, and Midtown for a suitable location. But they decided on Tribeca once they saw the inside of the cast-iron Grosvenor Buildings, which housed a bevy of manufacturing offices for everything from umbrellas, walking sticks, and typewriters to telephones, pencils, and cigars.
The building was most recently set to become a members-only club featuring a restaurant, gym, and roof deck, but the pandemic scuttled their plans, and Marian Goodman signed a long-term lease there in October 2022.
They brought in StudioMDA, an architecture firm which renovated 14 other gallery spaces in Tribeca, to revamp the landmarked building into three floors of climate-controlled exhibition space, two floors of offices, and enough room for showrooms and storage.
Architects put on a new facade, ripped out the ceiling’s drywall to expose its dark century-old wooden beams, hid its mechanical systems in the walls, and soundproofed the floors. The result was naturally bright, 15-foot-high gallery spaces that passersby can easily view from the street through the building’s floor-to-ceiling windows.
Markus Dochantschi, StudioMDA’s founder and president, believes the renovations help transform Broadway into an inviting space for everyone. “Even if you walk by or drive by, you can see the art world and exchange happens,” Dochantschi said. “For me, walking through Tribeca makes me happy and warm in my heart.”
Goodman’s shift downtown is the latest addition to a neighborhood that has experienced a renaissance since Carolyn Alexander, Ted Bonin, and Stefania Bortolami established art spaces nearly eight years ago (Alexander and Bonin closed earlier this year).
Since then, more than 70 galleries have opened in the neighborhood, including Jack Shainman’s satellite for large-scale installations in the Clock Tower Building at 46 Lafayette Street in January; James Fuentes and Bureau, which both left the Lower East Side for Duane Street in March; and Asya Geisberg, who fled Chelsea for White Street this spring.
“The Marian Goodman building is beautiful and it’s hard to miss, Sarah Stengel, director of communications at James Cohan, said. “Every gallery that’s moved here has been committed to integrating with the community, joining the listserve, and joining the openings. It’s a very collegial environment and it’s an attractive ethos for people.”
Eden Deering, director at PPOW, thinks the addition will bring even more art lovers to Broadway and the surrounding side streets.
“We’re very excited. For a while we were worried it was going to be a SoHo House,” Deering told Hyperallergic. “It’s very fun here. For the amount of foot traffic we get, it feels like we work at a museum.”
Kirwan believes the gallery’s new location will still attract its long-time collectors while building broader viewership, perhaps the greatest benefit of moving below Canal Street.
“The rhythm of a Saturday is extremely important in the business side of things, but it’s also important for the curatorial side,” Kirwan said. “Our artists deserve to have the widest possible audience.”
