Storm King Art Center Shutters

As part of Storm King Art Center’s first major capital project, the pivoting doors and shutters of the washroom are a defining architectural moment that frames views and creates a porous boundary between interior space and the exterior landscape.

SITU was first engaged for a design assist to devise a kinetic solution for the doors and shutters of the washroom; an often under-designed and underappreciated space within a building.

The doors are of a size and weight that required careful engineering to ensure compatibility with the building structure, and the shutters were designed to pivot around already erected structural columns which required a custom hardware solution.

The custom bearings consist of 3 basic parts - an anodized aluminum rotor (the outer part that turns with the shutter) and stator (the inner stationary part attached to the column) which together sandwich a synthetic polymer bushing (a custom, corrosion resistant, low-friction part selected for the exterior setting).

The cut and welded galvanized steel doors weigh between 600 and 1,000 lbs each, necessitating the thermally modified radiata pine cladding to be attached after the door frames were hung. Spring loaded cane bolts allow the massive doors to be fixed in both the open and closed positions, and padlocked for added security after hours.

The resulting experience blurs the line between the interior and exterior landscape, and turns the structure into a work of art in and of itself.