Hauser & Wirth Has Filed Plans for Gigantic New Chelsea Gallery

This brings the gallery one step closer to a new home.

545 West 22nd Street interior.
Image: www.center548.com.
Hauser & Wirth's current Chelsea facility, left, and the building it will knock down to make way for its new home, right.<br>Photo via Real Deal.

Hauser & Wirth’s Chelsea location, left, and the building it will knock down to make way for its new home, right.
Photo via The Real Deal.

International powerhouse gallery Hauser & Wirth has filed papers for a new home in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, four blocks north of its current location on 18th Street, which it has occupied since January 2013.

The gallery put in a permit application with the city Tuesday to knock down the two-story white building on 542 West 22 Street. The new headquarters will span about 7,500 square feet over five floors on 22nd Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, according to real estate blog The Real Deal.

Go-to gallery architect Annabelle Selldorf, who has also designed galleries for David Zwirner and Barbara Gladstone, has been tapped to design the space, which will include a bookstore and a library. She also oversaw the renovation of the gallery’s current facility.

In addition to its New York gallery, Hauser & Wirth also has locations in Zurich, London, New York’s Upper East Side, and rural Somerset, England. Hauser Wirth & Schimmel is currently in the works in Los Angeles.

The move to establish a longer-term home in Chelsea demonstrates the gallery’s financial clout. Rents in West Chelsea have soared in recent years, especially since the development of the High Line elevated park and the opening of the new home of the Whitney Museum of American Art a few blocks south, in the Meatpacking District. Some dealers have decamped for more affordable space, like Casey Kaplan to the Flower District and Betty Cuningham Gallery, which went to the Lower East Side.

According to The Real Deal, Hauser & Wirth’s new landlord is Steven Helf of Helzen Associates, who has owned the property since 1992.

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