Courtyards make Brooklyn’s Bushwick II residential development its own miniature city

Considering the interconnected courtyards and 1 million gsf of space, the designers of the Bushwick II residential complex are calling it a “city within a city” in Brooklyn.

Led by developer All Year Management and architects at ODA New York, the project will feature open-air courtyards, covered walkways, and corridors that lead to plazas, shops, galleries, lounges, and fitness areas situated in transparent glass buildings. A 17,850 sf park will cut through the center of the development that will contain 800 to 900 apartment units, 20% of which will be affordable.

Bushwick II will also feature art from local artists, and tenant Rheingold Brewery has a 60,000-sf roof for outdoor urban living. It will have facilities for relaxation and fitness, along with an urban farm.

The development has been met with anti-gentrification backlash, and as Gothamist points out, the pledge for affordable units can be easily sidestepped.

ODA New York designed another residential complex, the 400,000-sf luxury development at 10 Montieth Street, that is being built a few blocks to the north.

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The Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team announced that it has reached an agreement with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County on a $6.5 billion, 86-acre mixed-use development that will include a new 30,000-seat ballpark and an array of office, housing, hotel, retail, and restaurant space totaling 8 million sf.

Engineers | Sep 15, 2023

NIST investigation of Champlain Towers South collapse indicates no sinkhole

Investigators from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) say they have found no evidence of underground voids on the site of the Champlain Towers South collapse, according to a new NIST report. The team of investigators have studied the site’s subsurface conditions to determine if sinkholes or excessive settling of the pile foundations might have caused the collapse.

MFPRO+ Research | Sep 11, 2023

Conversions of multifamily dwellings to ‘mansions’ leading to dwindling affordable stock

Small multifamily homes have historically provided inexpensive housing for renters and buyers, but developers have converted many of them in recent decades into larger, single-family units. This has worsened the affordable housing crisis, say researchers.

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Adaptive Reuse | Aug 31, 2023

New York City creates team to accelerate office-to-residential conversions

New York City has a new Office Conversion Accelerator Team that provides a single point of contact within city government to help speed adaptive reuse projects. Projects that create 50 or more housing units from office buildings are eligible for this new program.