REDUX EXHIBITION OPENING

Finally, Storefront reopened to the public, and an enormous crowd came to help us open with a bang. The night of the vice-presidential debates was an opportune time to kick off the White House Redux show, and it made sense that we would incorporate the debate broascast into our opening celebration. The gallery was packed and the sidewalk overflowed with people. Too bad Gwen Eiffel was not around to keep us polite.

REOPENING DINNER

To celebrate the inauguration of Storefront's restored facade, we hosted a dinner to thank those who made the restoration possible. We seated everyone at a one long table that filled the gallery.





To cater our event we asked Thiru Kumar and Veronica Julien to bring their portable kitchens to our curb. Shown below are Thiru, the “Dosa Man,” of NY Dosas serving up Sri-Lankan style vegan fare and Veronica of Veronica's Kitchen ladling out her famous oxtail soup. Both Kumar and Julien were both honored by the Vendy Awards in 2007.

123 IDEAS FOR A NEW WHITE HOUSE

Packed and shipped!
To get your own book, stop by the gallery or order online!

WHITE HOUSE REDUX - THE BOOK

The books have arrived!

Final (Breathless) Blast

Blogging has been slow - we hardly have time to breathe getting everything finished for tomorrow. Here's a quick set of images documenting what's been going on in the the last couple of days. More on Flickr.


Pernilla has spent a few vexing hours making mapping a layout of the White House Redux entries . Lucky she's really good at Tetris. This is her last exhibition install at Storefront - she'll be badly missed!


Cesar trying to figure out Pernilla's diagram.


Daniel, Storefront's sound artist in residence, fine-tuning the audio setup.


The barricade is finally coming down - Storefront revealed! No lettering yet, though.


Lotsa trash.


Susannah and Katherine geting up close and personal with some styrofoam blocks.


Takes some concentration.


The letters are back! Turns out the old ones were beyond repair, which is a pity, but they did a great job fabricating the new ones.


Anagram time. Again.


The letters are going up! It's going to look good.


We're pretty pleased with how the interior's shaping up, too.


See you soon! If you're anywhere withing a 500 mile radius of NYC, come to the Grand Unveiling on thursday at 7pm. Hopefully we'll get at least one more post up before then...

FOAMING

The styrofoam backings for the White House Redux installation arrived this morning. Because the gallery space is still due for a coat of paint on the floor, we have to store the foam blocks in the basement office. "It's a foam party," said Susannah Bohlke, Storefront's Programs and Development Officer. Storefront's employees are also learning today that styrofoam has a unique smell. "It's sweet like honey, but not in a good way," Ms. Bohlke commented.

We are currently looking for a nice home for the styrofoam to land post-exhibition. Perhaps we can turn them into centerpieces?

COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED

Looking at the state of the gallery this evening you'd never guess that one week from today everything will be finished, the place will be cleaned up, there will be an exhibition on the walls and there will be many (dare we hope several hundred?!) beautiful people milling around with glasses of prosecco in their hands...



But they will. Everything is very nearly finished, and on Friday the installation of White House Redux will begin. In the meantime, Storefront's untiring team of faithful volunteers is in action mailing out the reopening newsletter (don't be fooled by the beers - it's hard work.)





The newsletter, incidentally, contains a really beautiful poster-size exploded axonometric of Storefront created by Pernilla - if you're not on our mailing list, you can pick one up at the reopening party.

IT'S IN THE DETAILS

As the bigger parts of the restoration falls into place on the facade, the finer details are worked on. The belly of the new seam roof gets a coat of paint and cleaning work is being done to the facade frames.

ABOUT FACE

With the FibreC almost fully installed on the east end of the facade, we are beginning to get a good sense of what the finished (refinished) product will look like. The corner screws will be supplemented with more screws lining the seams- as on the original facade.

CONCRETE FACE

The old/new look is coming back! The installation of the rest of the FibreC board on the facade has begun. Soon Storefront will be looking like it was once again!


Prepping the FibreC board for installation.

STANDING TALL

Our facade is now properly protected by a new metal standing seam roof. The new overhang should ensure that water doesn't invade the building's south side. Downstairs, we are happily removing the waterproof tarps from our bookshelves on the south wall.

The new standing seam roof is just at Brian's eye level.

COOLING PROGRESS

Our humid, little basement office is getting a blast of cool air- or at least it will soon. At 5am this morning PJ Mechanical installed our new air conditioning unit on the roof of 97 Kenmare. The unit should be up an running as soon as Friday. Now we are doubly upset that summer is ending.

HOLE IN THE FLOOR

The new office view.



To make way for a safety hatch, there is now a good size hole in the middle of the gallery floor. Now you can peek into the the inner workings of the Storefront office!

PLASTERED

The soffit has been completely plastered and finished.. bringing the amount of remaining interior work down to an almost finished list.


Also, more for the interior, Storefront is now back up and running with a brand new toilet and sink. We no longer have to sneak across the street and use someone else's restroom to continue with business here..

FibreC BOARDS ARRIVE

As planned, the new glass fibre concrete boards arrived this Monday at Storefront and no time was lost to begin the installation. The first board was cautiously placed and nailed. As it was before, zinc nails were used to attach the board. These now-silver-nails will eventually rust out and look just like it did before.




Architect and Board member Belmont Freeman couldn't wait to check out the new boards!






The Fascia and Soffit are also almost finished. As it is now being coated with plaster, it will soon be brilliant white and ready for the light railing system to be hung up again.


But it's not only the facade that's being restored, the restroom also gets a makeover.