Cranes and Trucks Busy at Norman Foster’s Rad Red Hook Office Development (Video)

Finally, some world-class architecture is headed to Brooklyn.

Workers have been busy preparing the site of an ambitious waterfront office complex in Red Hook designed by famed British architectural firm Foster + Partners.

Sticking out into the water on a pier sandwiched between Ikea and Fairway, Thor Equities’ Red Hoek Point at 270 Richards Street will bring 645,103 square feet of offices, stores and eateries — not to mention a whole lot of parking — to the waterfront area.

The founder of the firm is Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster.

Construction was supposed to start over the summer, but as of yet no permits have been issued for the complex. The unusual plans call for two five-story “heavy timber-frame” buildings — presumably with engineered wood, a new type of building material.

Wood frame construction is rare in New York City, although SHoP Architects is building a heavy-timber high-rise in Chelsea. The DOB “disapproved” the Red Hook plans in November — but that doesn’t mean the project won’t happen, since disapproval is often temporary.

When Brownstoner stopped by, trucks and cranes were busy moving piles of dirt around the project under a light dusting of snow.

The lot is 7.7 acres and will contain an esplanade along the waterfront that will be open to the public. The complex will be arrayed around a central courtyard and will have a walking track and rooftop terraces, the developer announced in June.

It’s designed to appeal to creative and tech firms, with large spaces available of 100,000 square feet, according to the architect of record for the project AAI Architects.

Permit applications show 1,112 parking spaces and fuel oil tank rooms in a cellar, with retail and restaurants on the first floor. Note new rules passed after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 call for ground floors and mechanicals to be higher than the flood plain in flood-prone areas.

Thor Equities, founded in 1986 by Joseph Sitt, is a commercial property development and management company whose 160 properties worldwide include holdings in Coney Island and elsewhere in Brooklyn.

Thor Equities purchased the site in 2005 for $40,520,000. It was previously home to the Revere Sugar Factory, which was torn down over the last 10 years.

Foster + Partners was founded in the 1960s by British architect Norman Foster. Its many high-profile global projects include a Slinky-shaped metro stop for Bilbao in Spain, the iconic Renault Distribution Centre in the U.K., and World Trade Center Tower 2.

The complex is one of many many office developments springing up around Brooklyn on formerly industrial sites and one of a handful built from the ground up. Another large office complex nearby was planned by Est4te Four but appears to be stalled.

Red Hook is cut off from the rest of the borough by the BQE and lack of subway service, but Thor Equities says the complex will have its own shuttle service, Curbed reported in October. Last year, an engineering firm floated a proposal to bring a subway line to Red Hook and build a forest of residential skyscrapers on Port Authority owned land, but so far no public support has materialized.

The complex could bring thousands more workers into Red Hook during the day, and new shops and restaurants could make the area even more of a weekend destination. Traffic generated by 1,112 cars during the weekday could be significant.

Despite all the development happening all over Brooklyn, most of it is pretty ho-hum. This one promises to be one of the most interesting new developments in the borough.

[Photos and video by Susan De Vries]

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