In November, the city announced that Two Trees would be developing a large site bound by Flatbush, Ashland Place, and Lafayette Avenue with a 32-story residential tower. It will have 300-400 apartments, 20 percent of which will be affordable. There will also be 50,000-square-feet of cultural space, a 16,000-square-foot public plaza along Flatbush Avenue, and 23,000-square-feet of ground floor retail. Enrique Norten of Ten Arquitectos is the architect, and the arts space will be shared by BAM, 651 ARTS, and the Brooklyn Public Library.

At the same time the city announced the Two Trees building, they also finalized plans with the Gotham Organization to build a 600-unit residential building on a site bound by Rockwell Place, Fulton Street, and Ashland Place (currently a parking lot). It will be 515,000-square-feet, and it will have 40,000-square-feet of cultural, retail, and office space. Half of the apartments will be affordable, and 40 percent of the affordable units will be two-bedrooms.

RFPs for the final site of city-owned land in the BAM Cultural District were due at the beginning of February. The requirements were pretty loose; the RFP asked for 100,000-square-feet of floor area, with a minimum of 15,000-square-feet dedicated to cultural groups. The building can also include apartments and/or commercial space. Currently, the site, on the south side of Lafayette Avenue at Ashland Place is a parking lot.

One of the first BAM Cultural District projects to get going was the makeover of the old Strand Theater, which still is not complete, more than five years after its announcement. Thomas Leeser designed plans to turn it into a high-tech performance space with TV studios, offices, and a glass workshop. Last we heard, it would be opening in 2014. BRIC reps send word that they will be opening the first week of October. Hooray!

In September 2012, BAM opened the doors to its new Hugh Hardy-designed theater on Ashland Place. The project incorporated a historic citadel as its street level facade and constructed a new six story building behind it. It holds a 250-seat experimental theater, as well as a rooftop terrace, rehearsal spaces, offices, and BAM's first dedicated classroom.

Hugh Hardy's firm, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, also design the glassy new home of the Theater for a New Audience. Located on Rockwell Place, the 27,500-square-foot theater has been in the works for nearly 13 years, and it will finally open this summer. It sits on the same city-owned lot as Two Trees' forthcoming tower.

David and Douglas Steiner (of the Brooklyn Navy Yard's Steiner Studios) are behind this 52-story tower, which will bring 720 rental apartments to the area. Dattner Architects designed the building, and amenities include a landscaped terrace with a sun deck, a fitness center with a yoga studio, a dog run, a terrace, and bike storage for every unit.