Two years ago, YIMBY brought you the first look at the 12-story office and medical center for New York City Hotel and Motel Trades Council’s Employee Benefit Funds at 620 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Now, workers are installing a curved, undulating facade on the building, and Tectonic has photos of the progress.
The 133,000-square-foot structure topped out last month, and wavy glass now clads the first six stories. It reaches 177 feet into the air and wraps around a full block between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street, on the border between Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene. The building, designed by Francis Cauffman, will be the fourth health center for the hotel workers’ union, replacing their existing Brooklyn one on Schermerhorn Street and supplementing others in Midtown, Harlem, and Long Island City.
620 Fulton Street, photo by Tectonic
The finished project will offer a 60,600-square-foot health center for union hotel workers and 72,300 square feet of office and retail space. The medical facilities will serve a portion of the union’s 32,000 members, along with their families.
Roughly 40,000 square feet of office space will be rented to an outside tenant, making this the first major office project to inch toward the finish line since Downtown Brooklyn was rezoned—largely to encourage the creation of new office space—over a decade ago. The building’s base will host 20,000 square feet of retail, plus a restaurant.
An overhead drone shot of 620 Fulton Street, courtesy of Tectonic
When YIMBY first revealed the design in 2014, the architect described the exterior as a “distinctive teardrop form and textured glass façade with frits and fins [that] create a gateway to the cultural district.” The designers also hoped to include a mural designed by a local artist inside the south facade, but it’s not clear whether that will become a reality. The development is also supposed to include an outdoor public plaza along Fulton Street.
A corner shot of 620 Fulton Street, by Tectonic
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This building is in Fort Greene — not downtown Brooklyn!
Its true but Downtown Brooklyn is like Downtown Manhattan. A central business area,Not much of a defined district. Few agree where it ends. You can call most of it Fort Greene, Brooklyn Heights, Carol Gardens Vinegar Hill and not be wrong. You can also call all these areas Downtown and not be wrong.
Drone shot is great open view, and lock my interesting to curved facade. (I like an entire glass)
The correct title of the organization is New York Hotel Trades Council and Hotel Association of NYC, Inc. Employee Benefit Funds. Nice article!