The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Power Station, completed in 1903, was originally built to supply electricity to the local steam railroad, elevated railroad, and street car system. It consisted of two parts: the Turbine Hall and the Boiler House. About 50 years after its construction in the 1950s, the Power Station was decommissioned and the Boiler House component was demolished.
Since the time of its decommissioning, the Turbine Hall has sat abandoned with restricted access. In the early part of the new millennium, Brooklyn’s youth, drifters, and homeless dubbed the building the “Batcave,” and used its walls as a canvas for graffiti. In 2012, the Powerhouse Environmental Arts Foundation acquired the site in order to redevelop it into the Powerhouse Workshop.
After acquiring the property, the foundation tasked Herzog & de Meuron with redesigning the 113-year-old structure into a fabrication center to serve the working needs of artists. The existing Turbine Hall will be extensively renovated and the Boiler House, demolished in the 1950s, will be rebuilt. Fabrication shops dedicated to wood, metal, ceramics, textiles, and printmaking will all grace the renovated and rebuilt structure. Interior spaces will be flexible to allow for multiple workshop configurations depending on what is needed at a given time.
The main goal of Powerhouse is to support the working needs of artists and create a platform that provides employment in production and full-service fabrication, according to the projects website. In addition to the fabrication spaces, the Powerhouse will also hold public events and exhibitions.
Work on the project will begin in 2017 with the facility scheduled to open in 2020.
Related Stories
Sponsored | | Oct 19, 2014
The Exploration Tower in Port Canaveral dazzles visitors
With a mission to provide the experience of a lifetime, the Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral, Fla., is designed to inspire, as visitors learn about the history and nature of the port and beyond. SPONSORED CONTENT
| Oct 19, 2014
White House Visitor Center reopens in Washington, D.C.
Designed by SmithGroupJJR and Gallagher & Associates, renovated center shows public its unique role as office, stage, museum, park, and home.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 12, 2014
AIA 2030 commitment: Five years on, are we any closer to net-zero?
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the American Institute of Architects’ effort to have architecture firms voluntarily pledge net-zero energy design for all their buildings by 2030.
| Oct 9, 2014
Steven Holl's 'intersecting spheres' scheme for Taipei necropolis gets green light
The schematic design has been approved for the 50 000-sm Arrival Hall and Oceanic Pavilion for the Taiwan ChinPaoSan Necropolis.
| Oct 8, 2014
First look: Woods Bagot unveils plans for new Christchurch Convention Center
The locally-inspired building is meant to serve as a symbol of the city's recovery from the earthquake of 2011.
| Oct 2, 2014
Budget busters: Report details 24 of the world's most obscenely over-budget construction projects
Montreal's Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Opera House are among the landmark projects to bust their budgets, according to a new interactive graph by Podio.
| Sep 24, 2014
Architecture billings see continued strength, led by institutional sector
On the heels of recording its strongest pace of growth since 2007, there continues to be an increasing level of demand for design services signaled in the latest Architecture Billings Index.
| Sep 22, 2014
4 keys to effective post-occupancy evaluations
Perkins+Will's Janice Barnes covers the four steps that designers should take to create POEs that provide design direction and measure design effectiveness.