Twenty-five feet wide and 81 feet deep, glazed with dramatic glass panels, the 24-story tower soars upward 280 feet, occupying the full width of its footprint from street level to pinnacle.

The narrow skyscraper is the new venue for presentation of contemporary Austrian arts and Austrian-American collaboration in many disciplines: music, visual arts, architecture and design, digital and Web projects, literature, film and video.

Abraham divided the building into three vertical parts; “the Mask”, “the Vertebra” and “the Core”. The most visible segment, “the Mask”, is the facade of teal-colored glass that tapers upwards to comply with zoning laws. The diagonal steel braces are visible behind the glass skin. A protruding box-like volume, containing the director’s office, cantilevers over the space housing the institute’s glass enclosed Library.
Next comes “the Core” that contain the main structural elements and enclosed spaces and, to the rear of the building, “the Vertebrae”, the metal-sheathed double fire stairwell that lines the back of the building.

Locating the the prerequisite emergency fire stair at the rear of the building liberated the width of the site and at the same time enabled Abraham to transform an element of sheer utility into a decisive architectonic component.
Light itself becomes the guiding factor in a visit to this building, you enter from the light of outdoors and move toward light filtering at the back from the north facade.

The main entrance, topped by a stainless steel canopy, opens to a double-height Lobby and Reception area. The glass facade offers views from the sidewalk all the way through to the back of the building; capturing the spirit of flexibility and openness.

Space and circulation are united by a floating stairway, paved with bluestone, that connects the public spaces of the Forum on five levels. The generous landings double as exhibition areas. The 30 foot north wall, washed with natural daylight from a skylight on the north facade, unifies all the public spaces.

The reception area flows along the bulge of a monumental drum clad in stainless contains the mechanical support for one of the building’s two elevators.
A bridge connects the upper Mezzanine to the Lounge/CafŽ level and, up another flight, to the Forum’s flexible, state-of-the-art 1,100 square foot Theater.
Library interiors on Level 4 are suffused with soft incandescent light and fluorescent light from wall-mounted fixtures that divide custom-designed wood and metal shelves. An interior stairway leads to the Reading Room on Level 5.

The Forum’s loft-like Conference and Seminar space on level 6 acts as a transition to the more private areas of the building. Like all of the building’s interiors the the open space has pale white and gray walls, high-quality wood flooring, brushed aluminium and stainless steel detailing, a balanced mix of incandescent and fluorescent light, and a wash of natural daylight from windows on the south facade.

Level 7 is occupied by the director’s office, above are staff offices and, on level 11, a loft-like flexible space that will accommodate special performances, installations, seminar events, receptions and other activities. The Director’s apartment occupies 4-stories and on level 20 a bluestone paved open-air Loggia, with magnificent views of the city, will be used for special receptions.
Levels above 20 are devoted to technical functions, including machine rooms, a mechanical bulkhead, and the building’s water tower.

Model

Drawing courtesy Raimund Abraham
Section

The Forum is the first major public building in the United States by Austrian-born New York architect Raimund Abraham, who received the commission in 1992 in an international design
competition hosted by the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria.

Total area: 30,000 square feet

Site Dimensions
Width: 25 feet
Depth: 81 feet, 4 inches

Building:
Height: 278 feet, 6 inches
Floor Area:
Gross: 33,000 square feet
Net: 24,850 square feet

Construction start: 1998
Completion: 2002

Client:
Republic of Austria, Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Architect
Atelier Raimund Abraham, New York, United States

Developer:
Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft m.b.H. (BIG), Vienna, Austria
Dr. Hartwig A. Chromy, Managing Director
Dipl.-Ing. Gerhard A. Buresch, Managing Director

Developer Representative:
Hanscomb Inc., New York, United States
Currently on view at the Forum:
Serious Play/Metaphorical Gestures
January 16 - March 22, 2003.

Serious Play/Metaphorical Gestures is the first thematic visual arts exhibition
The exhibition, curated by art historian Hubert Klocker, analyzes the functionality and cognitive aptitude of metaphorical forms in contemporary art and explores the spectacular revival of metaphoric statements in the visual arts.

“The metaphor has once again become a central tool of communication in the visual arts, with new possibilities of expression. The exhibition testifies to the incredible range of profound artistic approaches in the realm of metaphors ? from Rachel Whiteread’s sketches and models for the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna to the newly commissioned “digitalized manipulation” of a Hieronymus Bosch painting by Hans Weigand.”
Hubert Klocker
Curator of exhibition and symposium.

The exhibition features artworks by Ellen Berkenblit, Valie Export, Mona Hatoum, Andrei Monastyrskii, Otto Muehl, Carolee Schneemann, Elfi Semotan, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Milica Tomic, Hans Weigand, and Rachel Whiteread.
The symposium Metaphorical Gestures: Crisis and Function of Metaphorical Concepts in the Visual Arts (March discusses how metaphor is used as an essential tool in art to cognitively refer to contemporary political and social circumstances.

via arcspace.com