With urban manufacturing experiencing a renaissance, there is an increasing need for cities to provide affordable industrial space. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Master Plan has set out a vision for creating new vertical manufacturing space which would increase job count at the Yard to 30,000 in the coming years. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) commissioned WXY to develop the plan, which envisions more than 5 million square feet of new space.
BNYDC has relied largely on the adaptive reuse of the Yard’s historic buildings, which are now 99 percent leased. With the demand for affordable manufacturing space strong – the Yard was compelled to explore future opportunities for growth in its underutilized sections. New ground up development also presented an opportunity to design a new type of building – one that takes manufacturing space truly vertical and accommodates an individual business’ life cycle of growth: from small R&D firms to large-scale manufacturing.
The Master Plan focuses around three development sites within the Yard: Kent, Flushing and Navy. All three include the ground-up development of a vertical manufacturing space along with amenities for tenants, public realm and accessibility improvements. Each proposed building is made resilient by using the ground level for parking and loading uses. The plan adheres to the not-for-profit Yard’s mission by proposing a tenant mix of 75% manufacturing jobs 20% creative office and 5% amenities and services. New vertical manufacturing buildings are anchored by robust logistics bases that combine loading, staging, XL production spaces, and storefronts for public amenities. A mix of production/light industrial and creative office floors are stacked above, connected by shared resources and common space.
Credits: Grain Collective, GMJ&A, ORG, Philip Habib Associates, Gleeds, Sam Schwartz Engineering, Tillett Lighting, Applied, Stantec
Credits:
- Applied - Wayfinding
- Philip Habib Associates - Transportation
- Gleeds - Costing
- GMJ&A - Zoning Specialist
- ORG - Manufacturing Research
- Tillett Lighting - Lighting
- Sam Schwartz Engineering - Streetscape Design
- Grain Collective - Landscape Design
- Stantec - Coastal Engineering