Andrew Berman’s Entrance Building at MoMA PS1 is a quiet yet assertive threshold between the frenetic pulse of Jackson Avenue and the introspective realm of one of New York’s most vital contemporary art spaces.
Completed in 2011, the structure serves as both a functional gateway and an architectural statement, seamlessly merging orientation, ticketing, and exhibition space into a singular gesture of spatial mediation. It is a deliberate extension of the museum’s ethos—where materiality and form are distilled to their most essential states, echoing the experimental spirit that animates PS1’s program.
Constructed of exposed cast concrete, the building is a study in monolithic presence and subtle permeability. Massive steel-framed doors, glazed with laminated glass, punctuate its solidity, while skylights and embedded glass rods delicately orchestrate shifting daylight, offering an interplay of opacity and translucence. Berman’s intervention does not seek to overwhelm but rather to resonate—a nuanced filter that conditions the visitor’s transition, balancing the industrial texture of the neighborhood with the contemplative quietude of the museum’s inner world.
