International Center of Photography will relocate to Essex Crossing in 2019

UPDATE: The International Center of Photography has confirmed that it will be opening a new space at 242 Broome Street. The Center will consolidate the ICP Museum (currently at 250 Bowery) and the ICP School (in Midtown), all into nearly 40,000 square feet of space at 242 Broome.

The space will be divided between the two structures that make up the up 242 Broome Street condo building. The ICP will take up about 20,000 square in the shorter four-story structure that’s separated from the main condo building by a set of “soho stairs.” The remaining portion of the new ICP will be located at the base of the main building.

“We are thrilled to be reuniting the ICP Museum and the ICP School under one roof. This is something towards which we’ve been working for nearly twenty years,” ICP Board President Jeffrey Rosen and ICP Board Chair Caryl Englander, said in a joint statement.

“Our Essex venue will continue to reinforce our ties with the vibrant Lower East Side arts community,” ICP executive director Mark Lubell, added. “It enables us to look forward to an exciting future for both ICP and the neighborhood as a whole.”

A spokesperson for the Delancey Street Associates, the consortium developing the Essex Crossing megaproject, confirmed this new earlier today. The ICP Museum’s move from the Bowery to 242 Broome will take place early in 2019 after its fall 2018 exhibition program closes. The ICP School will move to the Lower East Side in the summer of 2019. 242 Broome Street was designed by SHoP Architects.

Courtesy of Moso Studio & Gensler.

Via Max Touhey

The cultural center that’s part of Essex Crossing’s 242 Broome Street condo has been shrouded in mystery for some time now. The Commercial Observer is now reporting however that the International Center of Photography may have signed on to take up space in that center.

The ICP is in contract to purchase two commercial condo units at 242 Broome, one is a retail unit, and the other is a community facility. Public records do not reveal how much space the ICP is looking to take up, so it’s not yet clear if they will be the new tenants at the 15,000-square-foot cultural center building.

The cultural center building is part of the overall 242 Broome condo, but is separated from the main structure by a long staircase. The main structure also has commercial space on the first four floors, though we don’t know the tenants for that yet either. A bowling venue called Splitsville has taken up 17,000 square feet in the basement of the building.

The Andy Warhol Museum was once planning an outpost at 242 Broome, but decided to nix those plans in 2015. A spokesperson for Delancey Street Associates, the development consortium behind the overall Essex Crossing megaproject, declined to comment on ICP’s move to 242 Broome.

At present, ICP has a space at 250 Bowery, and administrative offices and a school in Midtown. The Lo-Down reports that the institution has been looking to move its offices and school for a while now, so potentially that could move to the Lower East Side, but we’ll have to wait on a confirmation in the coming months to see if this is actually a done deal.

• International Center of Photography Plans Essex Crossing Outpost [CO]
• International Center of Photography Signs Contract For Essex Crossing Spaces [TLD]
• Essex Crossing’s 242 Broome Street gives shape to a new Lower East Side enclave [Curbed]