Powerhouse Arts – Herzog & de Meuron
Powerhouse Arts is a not-for-profit manufacturing facility based in Gowanus and Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, established to create a robust platform for art production and employment in the arts. Consisting of 170,000 square feet of workshop space for fabrication in wood, metal, ceramics, textile, and print, the redevelopment project transforms an existing, derelict structure on a contaminated site into a hub for artists, fabricators, and other workers and ensures that the industrial legacy of the site will extend into the next century. Reimagining a 115-year-old power plant as a modern production facility, the project aims to maintain a manufacturing presence in a historically industrial part of Brooklyn. By preserving, restoring, and reconstructing essential elements of the original power station, the project strengthens the building’s industrial character and its relationship to the immediate urban context.
The industrial landscape and history of the site play a pivotal role in the design proposal. It reinterprets the historic Boiler House by reinstating its mass and re-establishing its relationship with the existing Turbine Hall. The Turbine Hall is preserved – stabilized and strategically repaired – and its historical layers are integrated into the new manufacturing facility.
The reinstated Boiler House bears on the existing, historic foundations, minimizing further site excavations. Its concrete façade responds to the existing masonry shell of the Turbine Hall and provides a durable and straightforward envelope for the addition. The exposed structure at the interior, comprising concrete columns and slabs, provides flexible spaces for workshop use. The historic, punched openings of the Turbine Hall are incorporated into the Boiler House envelope, and the openings of both buildings are filled with new windows.
