The New York Times takes a close look at Juerg Judin’s Berlin gas station renovation project:
Mr. Judin, 47, bought it and its 800-square-meter (8,611-square-foot) corner lot for 500,000 euros ($740,000) in 2005. Over the next three years, he restored the existing building, erected a new wing and created an idyllic outdoor garden.
“The original idea was that it would be a space for an artist-in-residence,” said Mr. Judin who, with the New York dealer David Nolan, opened Nolan Judin Berlin in October 2008, a gallery that displays the works of prominent artists like George Grosz, the German painter, as well as up-and-comers like Adrian Ghenie, a contemporary Romanian painter. […]
The refurbished station alone would have made for a live/work area of about 93 square meters (970 square feet), but Mr. Judin figured that wasn’t enough space for an artist to really spread out. He added on to the existing structure a two-story building set at a 90-degree angle. The addition, shaped like an elongated trapezoid with translucent outer walls, created an additional 300 square meters (3,200 square feet).
The ground floor’s living space has a living room, a wall of art books — “Most of my library is still in storage,” Mr. Judin says — as well as a guest bedroom and bathroom and lots of wall space for rotating art. The upper floor is a 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) studio and exhibition space with a white floor, white walls and soft light filtering in through the translucent facade.
In Berlin, a Renovated Gas Station (NY Times)
