Brooklyn District 3 Garage

As the new home for Brooklyn’s District 3 Department of Sanitation team, this facility will accommodate 68 sanitation vehicles and 120 personnel, along with departmental and personnel vehicle storage, repair facilities, and office spaces. Working closely with DSNY, and with community input and sustainability as the key design drivers, the project resulted in a facility that respects the context of the surrounding neighborhood and responds to the concerns of the local Bedford-Stuyvesant community.

The extensive glazing provides a level of physical transparency that allows for the engaged local community to understand and observe what goes on in this enormous building. The facility’s design intends to create a sense of pride for the local community knowing that the city is investing in the infrastructure and essential workforce of Brooklyn Community District 3.

Our design for this garage began in 2015. Ten years prior the commission began, but the project was put on hold after Design Development to await funding. When the project returned, we embarked on a redesign, working closely with our clients, new agency standards, and aspirations. With community input and sustainability as the driving force, the new design—and its focus on the local context and concerns—resulted in a project of significantly lower height by placing the employee parking sub-grade and removing an upper vehicular level. Additionally, the design contains the primary flow of vehicle traffic to a side street, pulling unnecessary congestion off of Nostrand Avenue, one of the Borough’s primary thoroughfares and away from the residential zoning.

Dattner-Architects-Brooklyn-3-Garage-05_alt

Functional Sustainability

The garage is topped with a vast 46,000 sf green roof with native plant species which protects the roof membrane, reduces heat-island effect, enhances storm water retention and thermal performance, promotes biodiversity, and softens the view from the surrounding buildings. Additional sustainability elements include a photovoltaic canopy covering the rooftop mechanical equipment; solar sunshades at the south façade to reduce direct sunlight, limiting solar heat gain within the garage while still allowing in an abundance of natural light; and a rainwater harvesting system to supply fixtures and truck wash; and electric vehicle charging stations for DSNY fleet vehicles.

Natural Light & Active Design

The integration of natural light is an important component echoed throughout the facility’s design and helps create an environment of transparency and openness from the exterior and within. Vertically oriented exposed precast concrete panels and three-dimensional faceted precast panels with alternating window walls allow natural light into each of the garage’s facades. The garage program is visually expressed through three glass types, creating alternating clear and screened views as well as ample natural light for workers.

The project’s active design elements include a main stair with a skylight and views into the garage, located off an ample central lobby with views outside to encourage stair use; and indoor bicycle parking for DSNY employees who bike to work.

Precast Panels

Different precast concrete panel shapes and sizes were utilized to address varying enclosure conditions and to create visual interest in the form of the building.

Read more +

2_Brooklyn-District-3-Garage_Dattner-Architects_Construction_alt

In collaboration with the fabricators and installers, special consideration was paid to the color and finish of the faceted panels as well as the construction sequencing and attachment approach.

Read more +

Brooklyn District 3 Garage Dattner Architects Construction 2

The West façade of the building faces a more industrial context and is composed almost entirely of precast concrete panels. In this condition, the panels are designed as “sandwiches” with a highly insulated middle layer between outer layers of concrete, to provide necessary thermal performance for the garage space, and the single panels span heights of over 30 feet.

Read more +

Brooklyn District 3 Garage Dattner Architects Construction 3

When installed together, the faceted panels create dynamic shadow effect and create patterning on the East and West facades of the personnel building.

Read more +

Brooklyn District 3 Garage Dattner Architects Construction 1

The project features over 175 separate precast concrete panels, interspersed with glazed curtain wall to give the building a presence of stability and transparency.

Read more +