Fisher Landau Center for Art

38-27 30th Street
c. 1951; conversion: Max Gordon, 1991

Originally a parachute harness factory, the home of the Fisher Landau Center for Art is an unassuming three-story concrete building. The austere white façade features minimalistic ornamentation, including geometric crosses at the top of each pier and a stylized pediment over the entrance. Emily Fisher Landau, a Manhattan native who married into a prominent real estate family, began purchasing art in the 1960s, accumulating a collection of over 1,500 paintings, photographs and sculptures. Needing a large space to house her collection, Landau purchased the 25,000-square-foot factory in 1989 and opened it to the public two years later as the Fisher Landau Center for Art. Although architect Max Gordon transformed the industrial space into museum galleries and a library, the open plan and flared concrete columns remain as a testament to the building’s past.

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