Red Hook Center for the Arts
Brooklyn
Hanrahan + Meyers

A Stigmatized Gym Becomes a Welcoming Community Center

© Eduard Hueber / Archphoto

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By James S. Russell, AIA

Until recently, the grimness of the environment in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn found little relief. At the edge of this 15-block tract, in the shadow of the Gowanus Expressway (a roaring, rusting, elevated insult erected in the 1940s), lies the project’s recreation building. Once a foreboding red-brick lump, it has been transformed by Hanrahan + Meyers into a lively community gathering place. It is among the first of what the New York City Housing Authority hopes will be from 30 to 40 new community centers.

Within the renovated recreation space, the architects rerigged the stage, asserting its new importance by applying bright blue paint around it, and they created a monumental new opening in the rear. Outside the back of the building, a new seating area permits outdoor performances in good weather. For residents who had for decades faced the center’s blank back, the opening responds to a fervent wish.

Hanrahan + Meyers rebuilt the lower level to accommodate an arts-and-crafts area, a dining facility (many area children receive subsidized meals), a dance studio, and a library. A classroom will accommodate a new Housing Authority initiative to bring computers to youth whose families may not be able to afford them.

See the March 2001 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of building:
Red Hook Center for the Arts

Location:
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Gross square footage:
22,000 square feet (existing)
6,000 square feet (new construction)

Total construction cost:
$2.7 million

Client:
New York City Housing Authority www.ci.nyc.ny.us

Architect's firm:
Hanrahan + Meyers
22 West 21st Street
Room 1201
NY NY 10010