Brooklyn Navy Base Transforms into a Modern Tech Hub

The waterfront property along Wallabout Bay in Brooklyn, New York, has been home to industry for centuries. After the Revolutionary War it was used to construct merchant vessels, and in 1801 President John Adams authorized the purchase of some 40 acres there and established the site as a naval shipyard.

In the run-up to World War II, the Brooklyn Navy Yard doubled in size, expanded its workforce to 70,000 employees (including, for the first time, women), and became known as the “can-do” yard for its outsized, enthusiastic contribution to the war effort. That’s when the Navy constructed Building 77, a massive, 1 million-square-foot structure; the bottom 11 floors stored dry goods, and the top five housed offices for naval officers overseeing the North Atlantic fleet.

For years, the yard was only open to the people who worked there, frustratingly cordoned off behind walls and fences that hid much of it and the waterfront from view. The Building 77 development represents a major opportunity for residents to engage with a major fixture in their neighborhood. “What’s the one thing you want to do when you walk along that wall?” says Scott Demel, director of operations at Marvel Architects. “You want to see the other side.”

To encourage pedestrians to step up to the building—which they’ve known for decades as an imposing concrete building looming over the street—the design team placed its main entrance along Vanderbilt Avenue, one of Brooklyn’s larger thoroughfares. “There’s this urban connection,” Demel says. “We want to be part of the neighborhood.” Inside, the food hall runs along one of two railroad tracks that is embedded in the floor. Where it used to carry in naval supplies, it will soon guide in Brooklynites looking for a snack.

The low-lying Navy Yard was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, so storm resiliency was top-of-mind for the design team. The entire first floor of Building 77 was raised 18 inches, putting it well above the level mandated by building codes. That also created a space for food production tenants to run piping under the current floor but above the reinforced concrete of the original one—the original base was so strong it would have been practically impossible for tenants to cut through, making it more difficult for them to install the infrastructure they need. And to foster a sense of connection with the Navy Yard as a whole, the far end of the food court features large windows that give occupants a front-row seat to the happenings inside the yard.

A word about those windows. Converting a naval warehouse into an attractive space for businesses was no small task, and with Building 77, the team was trying to build the core and shell to LEED standards to boot. That was especially complicated because the first 11 floors were originally constructed to house dry goods, not people, so they were made from solid concrete and completely devoid of windows. To adapt the space, crews punched through the walls to create nearly 400 new windows, removing some 3 million pounds of concrete.

Overall, it was a massive undertaking—hence the more than $140 million price tag (it was primarily funded by the city). The reward, Demel says, will be the more than 3,000 jobs that will be created with the building and, if things go as expected, the revitalization of an entire neighborhood.