The Henry Moore Institute occupies three nineteenth-century wool merchants’ offices at the end of Cookridge Street in the centre of the city. These buildings are domestic in character, with significant elevations to Cookridge Street and Alexander Street. The project had to strike a balance between the retention of existing structures and the particular needs of a sculpture institute.
The design of the exterior is a response to the recent history of this part of the city. Now the main square in Leeds, the Headrow started as a much small public space in front of the Cuthbert Brodrick’s town hall. The square was subsequently enlarged by removing a block of city buildings and by shortening Cookridge Street. This means that a number of public buildings now lining the square were never intended to face that direction. A new facade has been added to the City Art Gallery to relate it properly to the Headrow.
Before the creation of the new Institute, the exposed party wall of the last merchants’ building formed the facade to the Headrow. There was therefore a special responsibility to complete the series of new facades to the Headrow by making an appropriate main entrance to the Institute.
This new entrance takes the form of a minimalist sculptural idea, using the mechanical repetition of flights of steps generated as the ground falls across the frontage. The entrance doors are located in a stone wall placed against the end of the terrace so as to leave explicit the “cut” made through Cookridge Street to create the enlarged Headrow.
The whole entrance structure is made of granite used in its various natural forms. The vertical surfaces are polished and the horizontal surfaces are “flamed” to give a contrasting rough texture. A tall eccentrically placed slot in the polished wall marks the entrance, behind which is the shallow-stepped passage that leads to the galleries.
The four-storey buildings divide naturally to give galleries on the upper ground floor, served by the storage and plant rooms below. This leaves the first floor as a study centre and the second floor for administration. The only new building is the main gallery space created by filling in the three-sided courtyard to Alexander Street. A bridge at first floor level links the Institute with the adjacent City Art Gallery.
The sculpture galleries are simple white spaces with a minimum of detail. Their character comes from the quality of daylight and the contrasting scales of the spaces available within the existing structures. The study centre and administration floors are detailed in a different manner from the galleries, creating a relaxed working environment.