La Palestra

This addition to the La Palestra brand called for the conversion of two partial floors of the basement in the Plaza Hotel into a facility that caters for the physiotherapeutic needs of its clients as well as functioning as a gym and workout space for the Hotel guests and residents. In a collaboration with Frank Gehry, the design provides a series of unconventional responses to the challenges of a demanding program within a tight space with no natural lighting, while preserving the layers of history accumulated over 100+ years.