Brooklyn, New York, USA
Designed by SHoP Architects and developed by JDS and Ackerman Development, 9 DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn is the first supertall project in the outer boroughs—a 73-story total.
The 73-story tower sits next to the landmarked Brooklyn Dime Savings Bank. The tower will be clad in glass and bronze and offer 500 residential units.
The supertall project yields a total of 425 rental apartments and 150 condominiums with amenities such as an outdoor terrace and a rooftop pool on top of the Dime Savings Bank.
The historic interior of the Brooklyn Dime Savings Bank originally the Greco-Roman masterpiece designed by Mowbray & Uffinger in 1908 will be restored and repurposed to form part of a new mid-block connection for pedestrians between Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street, two of Brooklyn’s defining thoroughfares.
The bank is restored by Jan Hird Pokorny Associates.
The domed atrium of the historic bank with its ornate details will be preserved, and the hall will serve as an entrance to the planned 120,000 square feet of retail space.
The tower’s timeless design is accented with a palette of materials, ranging from marble to bronze, that are selected to evoke without mimicry the bank’s rich City Beautiful detailing.
The building is clad in bronze, stainless steel, and stone, with view-maximizing interlocking hexagonal exposures. The facade detailing is such so that when two sides of the hexagon are viewed from an oblique angle, it resembles one face, a sleeker reference to the grand old New York skyscrapers like Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building.
Michael Stern, founder of JDS Development Group, proclaimed: “The tower will be Brooklyn’s next icon. Brooklyn was really missing that one iconic statement that was worthy of the borough. This building will really put Brooklyn on the map.”
“There’s a sort of brooding Gotham to it,” notes Gregg Pasquarelli, founding principal of SHoP. Isn’t that what we all want to be as New Yorkers?”
Ultimately, on the skyline 9 DeKalb will represent a new and lasting symbol of the borough’s ongoing renaissance, rivaling in height and character the storied towers of Manhattan.
9 DeKalb Avenue is anticipated to be finished around 2022.
Architects: SHoP Architects
Original Architects: Mowbray & Uffinger (1908)
Modification Architects: Halsey, McCormack & Helmer (1931)
Preservation Architects: Jan Hird Pokorny Associates
Landscape Architects: HM White
Interior Designers: Gachot Studios and K&Co.
Developers: JDS Development Group and Ackerman Development
