Design Contest Will Remake Chelsea Prison as Women's Center

Chelsea's Bayview Correctional Facility, a former YMCA turned women's prison on West 20th Street, has sat like a scourge on the block since it shuttered some years ago. Now, the facility is getting a new life—its third, to be precise—as The Women's Building, a home for the global girls' and women's rights movements. The developers behind the project, the NoVo Foundation and women-led Goren Group, have announced via press release a design competition to reimagine the 1931-built structure into a "vertical neighborhood, designed to foster serendipitous interactions, build partnerships, create networks, and grow sustainable solutions."

The competition will take place in two stages. In the first stage, architects can submit their qualifications online via a Request for Qualifications that will be open through January 6. A selection committee steered by members of the girls' and women's rights movements and other industry professionals will then review the submissions and recommend finalists. In the second stage, those finalists will be invited to submit a conceptual design proposal for the building that reflects on the programming agenda that will be developed by the NoVo Foundation and Goren Group. The winner of the competition will be announced in June 2016. Minority and women architects are encouraged to apply.
· The Women's Building [official]
· 70 Photos Inside Chelsea's Former Prison Before It's Converted [Curbed]
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