Friends Seminary Skyspace

Religious Arts Award

Perkins Eastman Architects DPC

New York, New York

Friends Seminary K-12 School shares a site and programs with the New York Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. This project included additions to school buildings and construction of the Skyspace, which contains an aperture that opens to the sky. A programmed light show washes the walls and ceiling, changing the perceived color of the sky and interacting with the natural changes in the sky at dawn and dusk.

The Skyspace challenges our understanding of light and space. James Turrell, the artist who created the light show, is a Quaker who has based his lifelong work on understanding all the different ways that we perceive and understand light.

The design involved close collaboration between architect and artist. To support year-round use, a retractable roof with a cast fiberglass dome was designed to cover the aperture. The completed Skyspace is integrated into the curriculum and activities of the school and serves both as a place of contemplation and meditation and as an active arts and collaboration space. It is open for visits from children in neighboring city schools and from the community at large.

Jury Comments

This space that makes us see light in a new way, creating a sense of awe and wonder in the presence of the sky. It is transcendent in the tradition of great spirituality.

Project Team Members

Frances Halsband FAIA / Principal-in-Charge
Nick Wan AIA / Project Manager

Project Consultants

James Turell Art Installation
Silman Structural
Jaffe Holden Acoustics
William Vitacco Associates Code Consultant
Steven Winter Associates Sustainability

Photo Credit / John Galayda