City Announces Development Team for EyeBAM Mixed-Use and Cultural Building in Downtown Brooklyn

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

A team of six entities was chosen by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development representatives to develop BAM North Site II, the last vacant property within the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District, also known as DoBro or Fort Greene.

EyeBAM rendering

Jonathan Rose Companies along with Dattner Architects, Bernheimer Architecture, SCAPE Landscape Architects—and cultural partners Eyebeam Art + Technology and Science Gallery International—will create an affordable, mixed-use structure on three undeveloped lots totaling almost 12,500 square feet on Lafayette Street between Ashland Place and Rockwell Place.

According to an official statement, the project will be developed under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP), a multi-billion initiative that aims to finance 165,000 units of affordable housing for half a million New Yorkers by the close of fiscal year 2014.

EyeBAM, as the 12-story building was named, will include a mix of 109 apartments, of which 40 percent will be made available as affordable housing and 60 percent as market rate units. Project plans also include 27,000 square feet of ground floor and second floor space that will house exhibition areas and a cultural center shared by Eyebeam and the Science Gallery. A Craft-

EyeBAM rendering

branded restaurant will occupy around 2,700 square feet of street level space.

Expected to break ground in mid-2015, EyeBAM is designed to meet LEED Gold criteria and exceed Enterprise Green Communities standards, which translates into a set of green building guidelines applicable to affordable housing and is mandatory for all new affordable housing projects financed by the City of New York.

The Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District has seen a lot of movement since November 2012, when Mayor Bloomberg announced a plan to revitalize this area. The initiative tackled several city-owned, undeveloped parcels in the district and aimed to bring approximately 600 much-needed affordable housing units, a new public plaza and new cultural spaces to this neighborhood which has historically been home to a great number of artists and arts organizations such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

EyeBAM rendering via Dattner Architects/Bernheimer Architecture