Light Box | Dark Box: RayKo Photography Center
RayKo has had a long history as a community hub for photographers in the Bay Area. Their new facility, in a 12,000 sq ft former warehouse, offers digital imaging and scanning tools, rental darkrooms and studios, as well as a retail space and gallery promoting the work of regional artists. We used a translucent stretched scrim as a parapet to hide the proliferation of snaking mechanical ducts above the space that are essential to the darkrooms below. Not only did this function as a shield, but it also created a softly glowing light that serves as both a backdrop to the gallery space and an illuminated beacon from the busy street outside.
2022 Update from the California College of the Arts:
“We’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with the historic RayKo Photo Center, a fully equipped professional photo studio with purpose-built darkroom, classroom, and gallery space, to provide facilities for our Photography and Printmedia programs during the construction of Double Ground. RayKo is just two blocks from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and walkable and bikeable from our main campus. This partnership further connects CCA to the larger art and design community, and we’re excited about continuing to partner with organizations and facilities such as Public Glass, the Center for the Book, and others as we build our new campus –and beyond.”
The mechanical systems threatened to dominate the space. Behind the calm parapet scrim is a tangle of wily ducts.
