370 Jay Street Building Revamped as Academic Center for NYU

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

370 Jay Street – NYU

The long-idle, 14-story building that once served as headquarters for the New York City Transit Authority  (now renamed as MTA New York City Transit) is getting ready for a much-needed makeover to become an academic center for an academic engineering and applied science program.

Owned by New York University for more than two years, the office building at 370 Jay Street is one of the most important properties in Downtown Brooklyn. Built in 1951 under plans jointly designed by William E. Haugaard and Andrew J. Thomas, the 500,000-square-foot structure served as the new headquarters of the New York City Board of Transportation until the early 1990s. In 2012 the MTA transferred the building to the city, as reported then by Second Ave. Sagas. In return, the city agreed to offer NYU the opportunity to use the property for its planned Center for Urban Science and Progress which would help this section of Brooklyn become a technology hub for New York City.

“Applied science, technology, and engineering are among our fastest growing academic areas and the new 370 Jay Street—in the heart of a thriving tech corridor—will be an environment conducive to inspiration and innovation in those fields,” said Lynne Brown, NYU senior vice president for University Relations and Public Affairs. “370 Jay Street will give us the opportunity to promote research and learning not just in Brooklyn, but with programs across the entire University.”

According to the official statement issued by NYU, Mitchell Giurgola Architects have undertaken the building’s adaptive reuse by incorporating a series of sustainable elements such as restoring the limestone and steel façade to reduce landfill waste by approximately 4,000 cubic yards and installing 1,000 energy-efficient windows. In addition, the redeveloped building will have green roofs, as well as new mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems with a one megawatt micro turbine.

NYU’s new Center for Urban Science and Progress will occupy the top three floors at the renovated 370 Jay Street building. Three business/tech incubators—Urban Future Lab in Downtown Brooklyn, Varick Street Incubator in Manhattan and the DUMBO Incubator—will be consolidated to the third floor, while the rest of the building will be used by NYU as classrooms with the exception of 14,000 square feet on the ground floor that will serve as retail space.

The project is pending review by the Public Design Commission. Once it’s approved for redevelopment, work at the site could begin in 2015 and be completed by 2017.

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Rendering via NYU