ARCHITECTURAL FOCUS
CITY TECH PEARL BUILDING
INDUSTRIAL ROOTS RENEWED
Adaptive reuse projects bring their share of complications, yet as aging systems are stripped away, long-quiet details often emerge with unexpected resonance. As Shakespeare Gordon Studio( SGS) began the design process for a gut renovation at New York City College of Technology( NYCCT), such discoveries began to reveal themselves. NYCCT, commonly referred to as City Tech, is in heart of what has become known as the“ Brooklyn Tech Triangle”. This project is an initiative spearheaded by various local economic development organizations that includes over 500 tech companies and 11 universities in and around downtown Brooklyn, comprising the largest innovation cluster outside of Manhattan. At the heart of the campus is the New Academic Complex, a 350,000-sf multipurpose academic building that was completed in 2019. This new building serves as a centerpiece of academic life on City Tech’ s campus, and a new landmark in downtown Brooklyn that reinforces its growing role as an economic and cultural contributor to the city.
However, with the New Academic Complex adding much needed space for City Tech’ s growing academic programs, the college’ s older facilities, located just across Jay Street, were newly vacant and ready for much needed renovations after years of overuse and crowding. SGS joined the project to focus attention across Jay Street, to reimagine one of City Tech’ s oldest spaces, the Pearl building, as a contemporary, dignified space for the College to continue expanding its operations across downtown Brooklyn.
Since 2018, SGS has undertaken several projects in or related to the Pearl Building, a six-story multipurpose academic building. Built in 1922, the Pearl Building served as a munitions factory until it was repurposed by the newly established New York City College of Technology in the 1940s. The building’ s previous use as a factory defines its underlying layout and structural typology: the building features an expansive floorplate with high ceilings supported by a sturdy concrete frame, wrapped with large windows, and dotted throughout with thick structural columns clad in concrete. Along with the building’ s age also came complications with its dated infrastructure, which was an especially pertinent problem for a college hoping to
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