How do you take Makor—until recently, housed in a four-story brownstone on a residential street on the Upper West Side—and create a street-level space for it in Tribeca, on a major thoroughfare (Hudson Street)? Well, you start by calling on architect Michael Kostow of Kostow Greenwood, which specializes in creating spaces for performing and visual arts organizations. The firm has designed or renovated such New York cultural landmarks as the Delacorte Theater, the Brooklyn Tabernacle and the International Center for Photography.

We recently spoke with Michael Kostow about the design for the new space.

What did you want to achieve with your design for the 200 Hudson space?
Creating spaces—especially multi-purpose spaces—that look good and work well is one of our specialties. In architecture-speak, we call it integrating design and functionality. Here our goal was to bring the liveliness of the street inside and to create a comfortable, public, open kind of place that people can easily wander into. We also wanted the look and feel of the space to reflect the activities going on inside so that once people do venture in, all the different programs taking place in this one shared space—performances, films, talks, exhibits—fit and flow perfectly, energizing one another. 

What other multi-purpose spaces has Kostow Greenwood worked on?
We’ve done several, but one local example would be the Brooklyn Tabernacle, which involved converting three buildings into interrelated spaces that would house a school, dining hall, offices, meeting rooms and lobbies. We adapted one of those buildings—what had been the historic Loews Metropolitan Theater, a landmark vaudeville house that had fallen into disrepair and had been divided into small movie theaters before being abandoned—into a sanctuary for the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Now the facility seats over 3,600 and includes state-of-the-art theatrical lighting and broadcast capabilities. 

Another multi-purpose project we worked on in New York was the design of CNN’s New York Broadcast Center at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. We created recording and broadcast studios, a newsroom and office space, but we also had to make sure there was a route through the various spaces for public tours. For a project in Dallas, a film/video post-production house called Mad River Post, we converted a factory into a state-of-the-art facility with video editing and audio post-production suites as well as offices, a comfortable lounge and meeting areas.

How did you find a way to make 200 Hudson Street a space where many things could be happening simultaneously in close proximity to each other?
We knew we needed to create a screening room, a performance space for music and theater, a lecture hall and classroom space. The trick was to make the spaces flexible. We were able to do that by using modular walls, so that the areas can be divided into a combination of smaller and larger units. The space can also be opened up to allow for big events. 

What are the challenges and benefits of this sort of space?
The main challenge is that with all the activity on one level—not the case uptown—everything is closer together. So you need to keep traffic moving and contain the sound where it needs to be. The plus side is that the proximity of the various spaces makes it easier for people attending one event to be aware of is the other things going on, which channels energy from one area into another.

People who come to Makor like to hang out and meet friends. How do you design a performance and event space that’s also conducive to socializing?
We did a couple of things to provide space for socializing. We separated the café from the bar/music venue and made it a very open space that you can get to right from the entrance, even if you’re not attending an event. We also designed the space with wide hallways along with smaller nooks off the main thoroughfares. That gives visitors lots of areas where they can mingle and chat without “blocking traffic” for folks headed to events. We’re hoping that these people-friendly elements of the design help to make 200 Hudson a downtown destination.

You can take an online tour of Makor’s new location at www.makor.org/move.