Governor Kathy Hochul announced $10 million in state funding this week for the restoration and mixed-use reactivation of Hangars 3 and 4, a pair of historic prewar hangars at Floyd Bennett Field in Marine Park, Brooklyn. Designed by LTL Architects and led by the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy in partnership with the National Park Service, the project will restore the structures and repurpose their interiors for community, commercial, and educational use.
Rendering courtesy of LTL Architects.
The hangars form the centerpiece of a $75 million plan advanced by the conservancy and the National Park Service in 2024, which envisions restoration of the structures’ Art Deco exteriors and the repurposing of 50,000 square feet of interior space. Under the plan, Hangar 3 will be fitted out as a public event and community space with food and beverage vendors, while Hangar 4 will be anchored by the CUNY Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay and equipped with laboratories, prototyping equipment, and ecological modeling facilities.
Rendering courtesy of LTL Architects.
Renderings by LTL Architects show mass timber volumes nested within the wide-span steel-and-brick hangar shells. The cross-laminated timber construction eliminates the need for extensive new concrete foundations, and the historic hangar doors will be returned to operable condition, allowing the interior program to open directly onto the plaza and parkland beyond. A general contractor has yet to be publicly disclosed.
Rendering courtesy of LTL Architects.
The state grant arrives as the National Park Service undertakes a separate rehabilitation of the hangars’ building envelope. Floyd Bennett Field was dedicated on May 23, 1931 as New York City’s first municipal airport, and 26 around-the-world or transatlantic flights started or ended there between 1931 and 1939, including runs by Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, and Wiley Post.
Eclipsed by Newark and later LaGuardia Airport, the field was sold to the U.S. Navy and commissioned as Naval Air Station New York in 1941. The Navy deactivated the base in 1971, and the roughly 1,300-acre property joined Gateway National Recreation Area the following year. More recently, a 2,000-bed migrant shelter operated on the grounds for more than a year before closing in January 2025.
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I’m hoping much of Floyd Bennett can be turned into a nature preserve with tideflats, native trees and ponds. Most of that has been lost around Jamaica Bay.
A 1939 transatlantic flight on a Boeing flying boat cost the equivalent of $16,000 round trip today. This is why flying was so glamorous, but also slow and bumpy.
Please send application for appt to 290 Lincoln place c1 Brooklyn ny 11238
Love this project and looking forward to visiting the field one day.
As a frequent visitor to the area I enjoy kayaking fishing biking and going ice skating at aviators. None the less I feel this doesn’t really add anything meaningful to the area. These hangers are not really pulling anybody in. Rather invest in more pretty landscaping and beach facilities. Why not make a larger marina or better kayaking program?
Would love to see the field fully transformed into a true hybrid recreation/nature park which can connect into the broader Gateway recreation area.
This is fantastic ‼️‼️ there’s a need for spaces for recreational sports for the adventurous youth‼️be nice if they had safe spaces for drag racing, motorcycling…dirt bikes
How about to make a Rave/Techno club there ?