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
University Buildings | May 19, 2015
Renovate or build new: How to resolve the eternal question
With capital budgets strained, renovation may be an increasingly attractive money-saving option for many college and universities.
Multifamily Housing | Apr 22, 2015
Condo developers covet churches for conversions
Former churches, many of which are sitting on prime urban real estate, are being converted into libraries, restaurants, and with greater frequency condominiums.
Sponsored | Cladding and Facade Systems | Mar 24, 2015
Designers turn a struggling mall into a hub of learning and recreation
Architects help Nashville government transform a struggling mall into a new community space.
Religious Facilities | Mar 23, 2015
Is nothing sacred? Seattle church to become a restaurant and ballroom
A Seattle-based real estate developer plans to convert a historic downtown building, which for more than a century has served as a church sanctuary, into a restaurant with ballroom space.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Mar 5, 2015
Chicago's 7 most endangered properties
Preservation Chicago released its annual list of historic buildings that are at risk of being demolished or falling into decay.
| Dec 29, 2014
Startup Solarbox London turns phone booths into quick-charge stations [BD+C's 2014 Great Solutions Report]
About 8,000 of London’s famous red telephone boxes sit unused in warehouses, orphans of the digital age. Two entrepreneurs plan to convert them into charging stations for mobile devices. Their invention was named a 2014 Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Nov 3, 2014
An ancient former post office in Portland, Ore., provides an even older art college with a new home
About seven years ago, The Pacific Northwest College of Art, the oldest art college in Portland, was evaluating its master plan with an eye towards expanding and upgrading its campus facilities. A board member brought to the attention of the college a nearby 134,000-sf building that had once served as the city’s original post office.
| Oct 28, 2014
Miami accepts more modest plan to renovate its convention center
The city of Miami has awarded an $11 million contract for its on-again, off-again convention center renovation to Denver-based Fentress Architects, which will serve as the design criteria professional on this project.
| Oct 26, 2014
New York initiates design competition for upgrading LaGuardia, Kennedy airports
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state would open design competitions to fix and upgrade New York City’s aging airports. But financing construction is still unsettled.
| Oct 1, 2014
Philip Johnson's iconic Crystal Cathedral to be modernized, made 'intrinsically Catholic'
Johnson Fain and Rios Clementi Hale Studios have been commissioned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to upgrade the all-glass church in Garden Grove, Calif. The church acquired the property in 2012.