DXA Studio renovated the Highline Ballroom, a well known music venue and dance club located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The project included a new façade, a new lobby and modifications to the performance area of the 3-story, 10,650SF space.

The High Line Ballroom’s façade is clad in open, plank-like zinc panels that recall the dot patterns of circular steel rivets of the nearby High Line Park, but though subtractive perforation rather than addition. The folded façade changes appearance over the course of the day and night with dynamic lighting and an LED panel that displays current and upcoming shows.

The interior features perforated metal and planks that continue in a horizontal pattern that wraps all wall surfaces of the public portions of the lobby and the bar backdrops inside the club. The metal panel is suspended in front of mirrors with interstitial lighting to create a dazzling pattern of offset perforations and reflections.

The horizontal panel system also incorporated locations for electronic displays, show posters and postcard announcements. The overall effect brings a dynamic, colored and layered quality to the perimeter of rooms that were previously dark and uninviting.

The pattern of perforations at both the interior and exterior are based on abstracted images that evoke the High Line’s vegetation and a sense of movement.