Brooklyn Navy Yard debuts 16-story office building at Dock 72

A number of new buildings and public spaces will debut at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the next few weeks; as of today, one of those, Dock 72, a 16-story office building that topped out two years ago, is officially open.

The 675,000 square-foot building was co-developed by Boston Properties, Rudin Development, and WeWork. That beleaguered co-working company will occupy about a third of the building’s footprint.

“You may have heard we’ve been in the news lately, not all of it that flattering, so it’s great to be among friends, and with this beautiful building behind us,” Sebastian Gunningham, WeWork’s co-CEO, said during the building’s opening event.

The waterfront structure—designed by S9 Architecture, with Perkins Eastman as the architect of record, and interiors by Fogarty Finger Architecture—has its own ferry stop that debuted in May, offers stunning views of Brooklyn and the Manhattan skyline, and intends to honor the Navy Yard’s maritime history.

“The building is an expression and a reaction to the waterfront, [it] steps back to capture views [as well as] Wallabout Bay,” said Sital Patel, a principal at S9 Architecture. Built on an old dry dock, the building is raised above the floodplain, Patel said. In all, the building’s design, he said, intends to express “the old grid of Brooklyn Navy Yard in a modern way.”

Some of its interior features include high ceilings, large windows to capture as much natural light as possible, outdoor terraces, and open plan spaces. Its lobby features four hand-painted murals by NYC-based artists Dan Funderburgh, Kristin Texeira, Greg Lamarche, and Bryce Wymer; these were selected by Fogarty Finger and inspired on the concept of water.

The structure at Dock 72 is part of a $1 billion Brooklyn Navy Yard expansion that includes a five-story office building home to NYC’s first Wegmans at the former Admiral’s Row, opening later this month; Building 303, an industrial space and nine-story parking garage that’s expected to open in 2020; and a TV and film production space for Steiner Studios. Additional manufacturing buildings will also rise at the yard, as part of a $2.5 billion master plan.