Posted by Leonard Steinberg on May 24th, 2012

DIA is about to launch an important new arts building in West Chelsea on West 22nd Street:  Dia just bought the former Alcamo Marble building at 541 West 22nd Street in Chelsea for $11.5 million. That building sits between its former space at No. 545, and its existing six-story building at No. 535. With this additional site Dia can build a substantial 22,000-square-foot Manhattan home. In 2004 Dia closed its two Chelsea galleries (its main operations were across the street at 548 West 22nd Street), saying it had outgrown the buildings. Dia rented one of them to the Pace Gallery with a lease that ends in June.

Dia has chosen Roger Duffy, a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, to be the architect: The new Dia will include 15,670 square feet of gallery space and 3,625 square feet of rooftop for outdoor exhibitions like Dan Graham’s “Rooftop Urban Park Project,” a 1991 architectural pavilion fashioned from two-way mirrored glass that was originally installed on the roof of No. 548.

Plans call for creating a single building with a masonry-and-glass facade along the north side of West 22nd Street. It will consist of the one-story structure at what is now No. 545; a three-story building that will be erected on the site of the marble works at No. 541, and the ground floor of No. 535. (The other 5 floors of that building will be used for administrative offices or leased to commercial galleries.)

Another significant cultural addition to the West Chelsea Art scene, and an important indicator that the art scene is here to stay.