By James Seger, AIA
The F and G lines of New York City’s subway system traverse an elevated section of track overlooking Gowanus, a historically industrial section of Brooklyn, developed after the Gowanus Canal was dredged through swampland in the 19th century. From the elevated perspective, the canal can be seen snaking northward through low-lying warehouses and manufacturing shops, forming the foreground to views of Brooklyn’s brownstone neighborhoods and the distant high-rises of downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan beyond. Commuters have watched the cityscape evolve from this unique vantage point for almost a century.
During the past five years, they’ve witnessed the transformation of a conspicuously forlorn industrial icon in that landscape—the former Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) Power Station—foreshadowing the reinvention of its surrounding neighborhood by new residential development. In its new incarnation as Powerhouse Arts, the power station stands as an important embodiment of the area’s cultural heritage while retaining much-needed fabrication facilities for artists in New York City long into the future.
THE HISTORY
The BRT Power Station was constructed in 1903 to provide power to BRT’s local elevated train lines and streetcars. Typical of power stations of the era, its architecture was a reflection of its function with its massive Romanesque Revival arches expressing the might and promise of the new electrification age. Set back from a coal yard along the canal, the building consisted of two parts: a boiler house to produce steam and a turbine hall containing the generators, transformers and electrical lines that fed BRT’s rail facilities. Both parts were steel-framed structures with concrete floors and brick exteriors, supported on a 6-foot-thick concrete mat slab set atop a matrix of wood piles driven into the tidewater below. The boiler house was demolished in the 1950s, leaving the turbine hall to stand alone, functioning as a substation to another distant power station.
Following its abandonment in the late 1990s, a community of squatters took up residence and the building was nicknamed the “Bat Cave”. It became an outlet for underground society, providing a haven for graffiti artists and raves, as well as serving as a de facto billboard for political graffiti on its prominent south façade. During this period, virtually every interior wall of the building was adorned with intricate graffiti works, a fact that was not lost on Powerhouse Arts’ benefactor Joshua Rechnitz.
THE VISION
Rechnitz acquired the site in 2012 and recognized the historic value of the building and its importance to artists. The program for the building was originally conceived as studio space, but input from local artists revealed a predicament that changed Rechnitz’s vision for the project. A long-pending rezoning of the Gowanus area meant that the industrial fabrication shops that had traditionally helped artists realize their works were moving out, leaving New York City artists with few options. Powerhouse Arts could help fill that void before the zoning change occurred. The non-profit Powerhouse Arts was formed to see Rechnitz’s vision through.
Following several years of environmental remediation on the brownfield site, a design team was assembled, led by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with New York- based PBDW Architects, serving as executive and preservation architect. Knowing the building’s recent history, it was a given that the team needed to let the building tell its story. That meant retaining and showcasing the defining characteristics of the original building and letting the patina of past uses and modified original construction read through in the finished product. Because the program called for a major expansion, it was also important to make sure the addition created a harmonious whole that embraced and honored the turbine hall.
THE DESIGN
The project called for fabrication shops, serving artists working in wood, metal, printmaking, textiles and ceramics, along with multi-use event and exhibition spaces. Considering vehicular circulation and environmental remediation concerns on the site, it made sense to model the addition on the original boiler house footprint, reusing its foundations and matching the parti of the original power plant complex.
The program was organized to optimize the functional requirements of the fabrication shops and to maximize exposure of the turbine hall’s industrial architecture, as well as the graffiti adorning it, within
the public spaces. Workshops handling the largest materials—metals and wood—were located on the first floor with easy access for loading. The lowest level, which is partially below-grade, is reserved for parking and designed to withstand floods.
Originally an open volume, the turbine hall was fitted with new infill floors, matching the original perimeter mezzanine elevations. Its second floor houses offices and a small event space, leaving the top floor with ample height for the Grand Hall, an event and exhibition space that showcases the turbine hall’s original steel columns, trusses, graffiti walls and other defining historic features.
Fabrication shops for small metals, printmaking, textiles and ceramics are located on higher floors within the new boiler house with ceramics located at the top, giving it direct access to the roof to satisfy its significant ventilation requirements. A modern, double-height exhibition space deemed “The Loft” was positioned in the boiler house, opposite the Grand Hall. The lobby and public spaces leading up to the Grand Hall occupy the east side of the turbine hall, traversing vertically between the new infill structure and a series of mezzanines that originally housed transformers.
Throughout the project, the grit of original elements is juxtaposed against the industrial rigor of new elements, setting up a conversation and energy between them. Outside, the new boiler house is clad in washed red concrete, an economical material that is sympathetic to the brick of the turbine hall while remaining true to its modern expression. Inside, new structure is composed of carefully formed, smooth, gray cast-in-place concrete—a clear departure from the original, riveted steel structure. True to the complex’s industrial character, all infrastructure is exposed and was meticulously thought through. This rigorous arrangement of infrastructure mirrors the original building’s engineered quality and is a testament to the great care and craftsmanship employed by the artisans who installed it.
Vestiges of the building’s original use and organization abound. An early discovery embraced by the design team was the “corduroy wall”, a grooved brick wall that originally contained terra-cotta conduit carrying electric cables from the transformer mezzanines down to the street grid. This wall is featured in the lobby and Grand Hall. Bricked-up openings for the steam mains from the original boiler house are evident on the turbine hall’s north wall, most now overlaid with graffiti. Certain areas of the turbine hall were removed and, where possible, evidence of those removed elements—cut off beams, arched slabs, sections of removed brick bearing wall—were left exposed. The building tells its story through all these remnants.
The adaptive reuse of any structure is enriched by featuring and re-interpreting the original architecture. Similarly, our built environment is enhanced by retaining important markers of our history and culture and making them viable and useful for the future. Powerhouse Arts remains an unsentimental reminder of the industrial Gowanus that used to be while ensuring that New York City and the building itself continue to be infused by the creative energy of artists and their work.
RETROFIT TEAM
DESIGN CONSULTANT: Herzog & de Meuron, in collaboration with EXECUTIVE AND PRESERVATION ARCHITECT: PBDW Architects
MEP ENGINEER: Buro Happold
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Silman
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Ken Smith Workshop
LIGHTING: Tillotson Design Associates
CIVIL ENGINEER: Philip Habib & Associates
GEOTECHNICAL: Langan
ENVIRONMENTAL: Roux
ACOUSTIC: Longman Lindsey
FAÇADE: Eckersley O’Callaghan
CONCRETE: Reg Hough Associates
MASONRY CONSERVATION: ICR-ICC and Eugene Architecture
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Urban Atelier Group
MATERIALS
EXTERIOR MASONRY: The Belden Brick Co. and Glen-Gery
METAL PANELS: Tetra from Everlast Metals
WALL COATING: Dryvit
MOISTURE BARRIER: GCP Applied Technologies
ROOF MEMBRANE: Parapro from Siplast
ACOUSTIC ROOF DECK: Epic Metals
ROOF PAVERS: Hanover
METAL WINDOW FRAMES, SKYLIGHTS: Stahlbau Pichler
METAL DOORS: Workspace11 and LIF Industries Inc.
FIRE-CONTROL DOORS, SECURITY GRILLES: NY Gates and United Steel Products
ACOUSTICAL CEILINGS: Armstrong World Industries
PAINTS, STAINS: Sherwin-Williams
SOLID SURFACE: Corian
WOOD FLOORING: The Hudson Company and Gray Fox Flooring
TOILET PARTITIONS: Kemmlit
DIMMING SYSTEM, LIGHTING CONTROLS: ETC and Lutron
DRINKING FOUNTAINS: Elkay
TOILETS, URINALS: Kohler
FAUCETS: T&S Brass and Bronze Works Inc. and Elkay
SINKS: Kohler, Just Manufacturing Company, Advance Tabco and Elkay
EMERGENCY EYE WASH, SHOWER: Bradley Co. and Haws
ENERGY MANAGEMENT: Delta Controls
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