City Tech (officially the New York College of Technology) spent nearly a decade trying to redevelop the Klitgord Building in Downtown Brooklyn before the school broke ground on a new eight-story academic center in 2013. Now construction is chugging along at 285 Jay Street, and YIMBY reader Tectonic took some shots of the progress last week.
285 Jay Street, photo by Tectonic
Several floors of steel have risen at the block-long site between Tillary and Johnson streets, and we can see the outlines of the new structure designed by Perkins Eastman.
The new building will reach 149 feet into the air and span 256,888 square feet. Four stories of classrooms and offices will cantilever over a curved, 1,000-seat auditorium and an 800-seat gym. Besides classrooms and faculty offices, the new academic floors will include laboratories, clinic and support spaces for programs in “radiology, dental hygiene, nursing, biological sciences, bio-research, chemistry, restorative dentistry, and vision care,” according to Perkins Eastman.
285 Jay Street, rendering by Perkins Eastman
While we’ve called the design “awkward” in the past, the glassed-in ground floors will create a much more friendly streetscape than most of the imposing, 1960s office buildings in Downtown Brooklyn. It’s also a major improvement on the old Klitgord Building, which was unapologetically ugly, even by DoBro’s relatively low architectural standards. And the site has certainly come a long way since 2008, when Bruce Ratner planned to develop a 100-story Renzo-Piano-designed tower there.
285 Jay Street, photo by Tectonic
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This is just what downtown Brooklyn and the CUNY students need!
They should have done the 100 floor design. The new one is ugly and has no dorms. The construction is also meh compared to the old design