The Office of Academic Affairs awarded Addison Hansen ’24 (BFA), whose thesis project is featured on this page, the Ana Blanc Verna Award for Excellence in Interior Design. At NYSID, thesis projects are long journeys that challenge students to brainstorm, conduct research, and synthesize all they have learned. The journey ends with a presentation to a jury of faculty and industry professionals. Our students work closely with faculty to create hypothetical designs that offer solutions to real-world problems.

Student: Addison Hansen
Project: Liminal Spaces
Program: Bachelor of Fine Arts
Instructor: Jack Travis

Ana Blanc Verna Award-winner Addison Hansen’s thesis project was years in the making. Knowing she wanted to study the idea of home, Hansen took part in a summer artist residency well before starting her thesis preparation course. She credits the residency, along with support from NYSID instructor Jack Travis, with helping her to figure out how to explore her thesis concept visually. The result was Liminal Spaces, a museum where visitors can explore the idea of home.

Hansen located the project at historic Pier 57 in NYC’s Hudson River Park. Her vision was that the proximity to public spaces would draw high community engagement, and at 633,000 square feet, offer a wealth of space to explore ideas. Over three levels, the museum includes exhibits focused on home in relation to memories, liminal spaces, and dreams. In the 1st floor shared memory exhibit, a large charcoal sculpture is centered under a skylight connected to a 3rd floor exhibit. On reclaimed paper walls, visitors can take a moment to tell a story in charcoal. A large sand timer sits past the paper walls, inviting museum goers “to push and pull the sand to illustrate passing time,” Hansen says. In another 1st floor exhibit focused on personal memories, visitors are surrounded by Hansen’s nod to what was perhaps humans’ first home, the Lascaux cave network. On the next floor, “Liminal Spaces” centers on “in-between-ness.” Then a sensory exhibit features rooms designed with paired scent and sound. Sensations progress from subtle pairings to more intense ones. “The idea is to slowly bring the participant into a consciousness of their senses and surroundings before moving on to the creativity exhibition,” says Hansen.

The third-floor Dream exhibit explores the realm of sleep, culminating with an area inspired by Neri Oxman’s Silkworm-Spun Pavilion in MoMA’s Material Ecology Exhibition. Oxman, a researcher at MIT, showcased white, ethereal-looking silk netting that was actively being built by silkworms. Says Hansen, “I wanted to bring this in to evoke the feeling of a dream.”

After working for Jeremiah Brent Design throughout her education at NYSID, Hansen recently started her own West Coast firm, Addison Design Studio.

— Leslie Robinson ’21 (MFA1)