Development

Addition, Renovation to BAM Harvey Theater in Fort Greene Is Currently Under Way

First announced in 2015, the new complex will be called BAM Strong, connecting three sites across a stretch of Fulton Street.

Rendering via Mitchell Giurgola

by Craig Hubert

03/05/2019 3 minute 0

An expansion to one of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s theaters is finally under way.

First announced in 2015, the new complex will be called BAM Strong. It will connect BAM’s Harvey Theater, located at 651 Fulton Street, with the ground floor space at the residential building at 230 Ashland Place, called The Forte, as well as the thin vacant lot next door at 653 Fulton Street.

During a recent visit to the site, green construction fencing was set up and scaffolding was already erected on the outside of the building.

A one-story structure will be constructed in the empty lot, connecting the two buildings on either side. Atop the structure will be a terrace, which will look down over Fulton Street.

There will be a new gallery space on the ground floor of the new structure, with an adjoining cafe on the ground floor of the residential building.

A new canopy is planned to stretch across the front of all three buildings, linking them together. Interior renovations to the Harvey Theater include the installation of an elevator to the balcony, which will also have new seating, and a new space for patrons on the second floor.

Paul Broches at Mitchell Giurgola Architects is the architect of record. In Brooklyn, the firm designed a building for NYU at 370 Jay Street in Dumbo and the PAVE Academy charter school at 732 Henry Street in Red Hook.

BAM purchased the ground-floor retail space at The Forte in 2010 for $1,807,200, we reported at the time. It is in a part of Fort Greene, near the border of Downtown Brooklyn, that has been developing rapidly.