Canvas canopies mushroom in renovated gallery

The Brooklyn Museum completed the first phase of renovation in its 10,000-square-foot colonnaded great hall and sought a unique installation to celebrate the space and serve as a hub for visitors. Situ Studio, Brooklyn, N.Y., created huge, mushroom-like canvas canopies around each of the gallery’s monumental columns to give the late 19th century architecture a huge modern profile filled with small intimate spaces for rest and conversation.

The 2,200 yards of Sunbrella® Canvas-Natural fabric, donated by Glen Raven Custom Fabrics, Glen Raven, N.C., was folded and stretched over suspended bent steel tubing and plywood rings with varying diameters, giving each column a different form. After the exhibition ends, the fabric used in the installation, titled “reOrder: An Architectural Environment,” will be returned to Glen Raven for recycling or re-used for future Situ Studio projects. Three-dimensional benches and tables around each column, created by LG Hausys America using a thermoforming process, will offer museum visitors a place to relax and enjoy the view. The exhibit opens March 4, 2011, and ends January 15, 2012.