By Wesley Young Winston-Salem Journal

Art for Arts Sake unveiled the plans for its new building Tuesday morning during the annual meeting of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership.

The three-story structure will be a modern design with translucent walls and red highlights that echo the red pipe sculpture and other fixtures in the nearby ARTivity on the Green park that the arts group opened last year.

“The cool part is that the white you see on the building is polycarbonate, a translucent material that will give a diffused light to the studios,” said Harry Knabb, the chairman and chief executive of AFAS. “At night they will be backlit, so the building will glow. The red highlights and the whites are ... almost like a Rubik’s Cube.”

Knabb announced the building as a surprise for more than 300 people attending the downtown group’s annual meeting at the Embassy Suites.

Art for Arts Sake was one of the recipients of the Downtown Excellence Award by the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. Knabb received the award for the group, then told the audience about the building plans.

Made possible by a gift from the Thomas J. Regan Jr. Foundation, the new AFAS building will have 14,500 square feet of space and will consolidate the group’s functions in one location. In addition, the building will make it possible for AFAS to provide studio space to artists.

Knabb said the $4 million building would likely be open this time next year, since plans call for it to be finished in January and it would take a little time after that to move everything in.

The ground floor of the building will be the new home for the Red Dog Gallery — a showcase for works by local artists — and Studio 2, which sells jewelry and other wearable art. The gallery will have 14-foot ceilings.

The second floor will have the Unleashed Art Center, with programs for young people and other emerging artists. And it will have 10 affordable artist studios.

The top floor of the new building will have an AFAS board room that can be rented out for other purposes, and it comes with a balcony that overlooks ARtivity on the Green. Also, the third floor will contain a 2,200-square-foot office that will be rented out and provide a source of income for AFAS.

Frank L. Blum Construction Co. will build the new facility, which will be called the AFAS Center for the Arts. The building was designed by Stitch Design Shop, with Stimmel Associates handling landscape design.

Knabb said he and his wife, Julie, visited Regan at his house in Florida last year, and that at one point Regan asked what it was that the arts district needed and didn’t have. Knabb said his wife told Regan that affordable studio space for artists was a top need.

Knabb said Regan provided the gift that made the studios possible, as well as a chance to put all the AFAS functions in one place.

Architect Adam Sebastian of Stitch Design said that the AFAS building was designed to give the group “ground-floor visibility” with lots of glass.

The translucent walls on the second and third floors will serve a double function: In the daytime they will provide a diffuse light that will be of help to the artists in their studios, and at night the lights inside the building will create a distinctive glow visible from the outside.

“There is not a building in the Triad that actually has that,” Sebastian said.

Sebastian said that polycarbonate is a type of plastic with a honeycomb construction that actually has better thermal performance than glass.

Harry Knabb said the new building should help the transformation of Liberty Street as an extension of the area downtown undergoing revitalization. He said he’s seen positive signs in the area since the opening of ARTivity on the Green.

“You see families walking hand in hand up to the park,” Knabb said.

The Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership’s annual meeting featured upbeat updates on matters downtown, including the news that when current and projected developments are finished there will be 3,000 residential units downtown.

The presence of Mast General Store was lauded as bringing new retail investment downtown. Rich Geiger, the president and chief executive of Visit Winston-Salem, said that a million visitors are coming to Winston-Salem annually, and that in 2015 the city saw almost as many hotel room nights booked.

Mast and AFAS were among those winning Downtown Excellence awards. Others were Atelier on Trade, a bakery; Bailey Park, an outdoor park in the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter; Linville Team Partners, a commercial real-estate group; and developers Hank Perkins and Drew Gerstmyer.

“The cool part is that the white you see on the building is polycarbonate, a translucent material that will give a diffused light to the studios,” said Harry Knabb, the chairman and chief executive of AFAS. “At night they will be backlit, so the building will glow. The red highlights and the whites are ... almost like a Rubik’s Cube.”

Knabb announced the building as a surprise for more than 300 people attending the downtown group’s annual meeting at the Embassy Suites.

Art for Arts Sake was one of the recipients of the Downtown Excellence Award by the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. Knabb received the award for the group, then told the audience about the building plans.

Made possible by a gift from the Thomas J. Regan Jr. Foundation, the new AFAS building will have 14,500 square feet of space and will consolidate the group’s functions in one location. In addition, the building will make it possible for AFAS to provide studio space to artists.

Knabb said the $4 million building would likely be open this time next year, since plans call for it to be finished in January and it would take a little time after that to move everything in.

The ground floor of the building will be the new home for the Red Dog Gallery — a showcase for works by local artists — and Studio 2, which sells jewelry and other wearable art. The gallery will have 14-foot ceilings.

The second floor will have the Unleashed Art Center, with programs for young people and other emerging artists. And it will have 10 affordable artist studios.

The top floor of the new building will have an AFAS board room that can be rented out for other purposes, and it comes with a balcony that overlooks ARtivity on the Green. Also, the third floor will contain a 2,200-square-foot office that will be rented out and provide a source of income for AFAS.

Frank L. Blum Construction Co. will build the new facility, which will be called the AFAS Center for the Arts. The building was designed by Stitch Design Shop, with Stimmel Associates handling landscape design.

Knabb said he and his wife, Julie, visited Regan at his house in Florida last year, and that at one point Regan asked what it was that the arts district needed and didn’t have. Knabb said his wife told Regan that affordable studio space for artists was a top need.

Knabb said Regan provided the gift that made the studios possible, as well as a chance to put all the AFAS functions in one place.

Architect Adam Sebastian of Stitch Design said that the AFAS building was designed to give the group “ground-floor visibility” with lots of glass.

The translucent walls on the second and third floors will serve a double function: In the daytime they will provide a diffuse light that will be of help to the artists in their studios, and at night the lights inside the building will create a distinctive glow visible from the outside.

“There is not a building in the Triad that actually has that,” Sebastian said.

Sebastian said that polycarbonate is a type of plastic with a honeycomb construction that actually has better thermal performance than glass.

Harry Knabb said the new building should help the transformation of Liberty Street as an extension of the area downtown undergoing revitalization. He said he’s seen positive signs in the area since the opening of ARTivity on the Green.

“You see families walking hand in hand up to the park,” Knabb said.

The Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership’s annual meeting featured upbeat updates on matters downtown, including the news that when current and projected developments are finished there will be 3,000 residential units downtown.

The presence of Mast General Store was lauded as bringing new retail investment downtown. Rich Geiger, the president and chief executive of Visit Winston-Salem, said that a million visitors are coming to Winston-Salem annually, and that in 2015 the city saw almost as many hotel room nights booked.

Mast and AFAS were among those winning Downtown Excellence awards. Others were Atelier on Trade, a bakery; Bailey Park, an outdoor park in the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter; Linville Team Partners, a commercial real-estate group; and developers Hank Perkins and Drew Gerstmyer.