LANTERN by OMA
Location: Detroit, USA
Status: Completed, 2024

LANTERN is an adaptive reuse of a former commercial bakery and warehouse to create a new headquarters for two local non-profits, and a vibrant mix of galleries, artist studios, gathering spaces, and community-serving retail. Led by OMA Partner Jason Long, the 22,300-square-foot complex serves as a new home for two local arts non-profits, Signal-Return and PASC (Progressive Arts Studio Collective). It also includes around 5,300 square feet of artist studios, gallery, and 4,000 square feet of creative retail – all centered around a 2,000-square-foot outdoor courtyard that will serve as an accessible community space.

OMA’s approach takes advantage of the building’s current state of disrepair, transforming an area missing both its roof and an end wall into a courtyard at the heart of the building. Defined as the primary entry with multiple frontages for all tenants, the courtyard becomes a public gateway and an activity condenser. Signal Return and PASC’s diverse programs – art education, production, and gallery – are organized across the existing tripartite site to maximize points of access and potentials for community interface. Production zones and artist studios create an active and inviting face to Amity Street, galleries line the courtyard to reinforce a public heart for the building, and neighborhood-serving functions orchestrated on the opposite side of the courtyard consolidate the most public amenities along Kercheval Avenue.

Across the North Building, existing bricked or boarded-up doors and windows opened strategically. Operable windows inserted at the studios to allow for ventilation, extruded windows at galleries become art vitrines, and former loading entries create large openings at production spaces, offer indoor-outdoor potentials. In contrast, the South Building posed a solid expanse of concrete masonry (CMU). Rather than imposing a new composition of windows, 1,353 holes are drilled into the blank walls and filled with cylindrical glass blocks. This monolithic field of tiny punctures subtly reveals light and movement within and transforms the building into a glowing lantern at night.

more. www.oma.com