Description

Paul A. Castrucci Architects welcomes NYC’s high-performance building community to ABC No Rio. Join us for an inside look at the project during the final stretch of construction.

Since 1980, ABC No Rio has been a volunteer-led nonprofit community center for arts and activism, based in a derelict building on the Lower East Side. For nearly a decade it has existed without a permanent home, taking its exhibitions, punk matinees, workshops, and organizing wherever it could gather. Now, with funding from the city, ABC No Rio will open its doors again. As Director Gavin Marcus puts it, this new building will be “an inclusive focal point for affordable, accessible arts and a meeting space for the city’s free thinkers, activists, artists, and musicians.”

PCA designed the building using Passive House methodology and high-performance energy strategies, pairing rigorous environmental design with spaces made for art, music, and community. The project is on track for PHIUS certification. 

On the tour, see the galleries, performance spaces, studios, printshop, darkroom, zine library, digital media lab, communal kitchen, and roof garden taking shape, and learn how low-carbon strategies, sustainable materials, and high-performance systems come together to support ABC No Rio for generations.

Join us and bring your questions! Learn more about ABC No Rio.

Thank you to our partners:

• NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
• NYC Economic Development Corporation
• Hunter Roberts, construction
• ZeroEnergy Design, Passive House consultant
• Rodney D. Gibble Consulting Engineers, engineering