Brooklyn Borough Hall Renovations

This renovation returns the building to a headquarters for the Borough President and houses various divisions of the borough government including new suites of offices and reception halls, a newly restored Common Council Chamber and Court Room.  In addition to restoring deteriorated materials and upgrading the building's plumbing, electrical and environmental conditioning systems, several interior features have been reintroduced or reinterpreted from the original Architect's design.  The primary rotunda space has been enlarged with new cantilevered granite stairs leading to the upper mezzanine, a new Joralemon Street entrance lobby with formal stair to the rotunda has been introduced, new marble and bluestone flooring has been installed in public lobbies, and fire stairs have been relocated to simplify circulation throughout the building.  Exterior site restoration included rebuilding the period curbs, sidewalks, plaza, street lights, furniture and planters. This project won the Municipal Art Society’s highest annual award for design, the Bard Award, the Historic Civic Building Award from the Preservation League of NY State, and was the subject of an article in the NYTimes by Paul Goldberger:  “Mr. Conklin has performed some radical surgery on this building: he has changed the size and proportion of the Borough Hall’s main rotunda, for example, and has added stairways and shifted walls.  This is a building with the hardness and crispness of modern architecture, and now its essence, hidden and compromised for so many years, has been brought back to the surface.”