Downtown Brooklyn

Metal Cladding Starts at Long-Awaited Arts and Affordable Housing Tower in Fort Greene

Northwest corner of the site from the intersection of Lafayette and Flatbush Avenues Facade installation is underway and superstructure has surpassed the two-thirds mark at Two Trees Management’s long-awaited 286 Ashland Place in Fort Greene, also known as the BAM South tower. Designed by TEN Arquitectos with executive architect Ismael Leyva, the 32-story mixed-use building is one of the most…

by Field Condition

10/29/2015 3 minute 0

Northwest corner of the site from the intersection of Lafayette and Flatbush Avenues

Facade installation is underway and superstructure has surpassed the two-thirds mark at Two Trees Management’s long-awaited 286 Ashland Place in Fort Greene, also known as the BAM South tower.

Designed by TEN Arquitectos with executive architect Ismael Leyva, the 32-story mixed-use building is one of the most interesting designs being built in borough today. The completed structure will include 384 residential units along with 21,000 square feet of retail and 45,000 square feet of cultural space at the base. Of the 384 units offered, 77 will be set aside under the affordable housing program.

Alongside a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library that has already been announced for the cultural space, the base of the tower will offer elevated public plazas to complement the BAM Cultural District’s future network of public spaces.

Now that the tower’s cladding has started to go up, the similarities to TEN Arquitectos’s other New York tower, Mercedes House in Midtown Manhattan, is evident. Both feature a similarly toned light grey metal panel with punched windows that eschew a normal rhythm for a more playful randomness.

The progression in the Brooklyn tower comes from the creased design of the overall facade, which creates a triangulated, slightly sloped curtain wall. For now, there is only a hint of the crease in the panels that have been installed. Also not yet evident are the two triangulated glass elements that break up the metal panel facade at the west elevation.

Construction at 286 Ashland Place is slated for completion sometime in 2016.