BAM North Site II represents a unique opportunity to build upon the synergy of existing performing arts facilities in the Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District while providing high-quality affordable housing.
Our proposal calls for a dance rehearsal and training facility to be shared by two world-class performing arts companies: Shen Wei Dance Arts & Lisa Giobbi Movement Theater (LGMT). Above that are eleven floors of affordable residential housing totaling ninety-one (91) units and ranging from studio to three bedroom apartments.
The building takes it cues from the work and process of the artists and a narrative reading of the urban context here. The solid and rectangular masses of the housing above shift and create movement as though the building is using the energy of the artistic endeavor it houses to push against its constraints. Overall the design is a conversation between the quality and type of space needed for the artists and their work, the building’s massing and repetition, and the opportunity to enhance the urban fabric through interaction with the public realm.