Brooklyn Bridge Park Breaks Ground on New Community Center

Brooklyn Bridge Park is revamping its old water main testing building at 99 Plymouth Street into a community center and park facility, and park officials held a ceremony yesterday to kick off the building’s renovation. The $3,600,000 conversion will bring a community room, a classroom for environmental education programs, two public bathrooms, a locker room, a kitchen, maintenance space for the park and basement storage. The classroom will also feature a 600-gallon aquarium where children can interact with marine life.

When renovation finishes next summer, the new structure will have a 28-foot-wide glass entrance facing Plymouth Street, and the back entrance will be a floor-to-ceiling glass wall facing the park, the Manhattan Bridge and the waterfront. The exterior brick walls will be painted gray, and the highly visible interiors will be contrasting bright blue and white. Stalco Construction and Architecture Research Office are leading the renovation of the 11,300-square-foot site.

We got a look inside the building, which is completely gutted. The brick facade has been repointed, and the building already has new windows. Click through to see more photos and renderings.