Building of the Day: 145 Brooklyn Avenue
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy. Address:145 Brooklyn Avenue, corner of St. Marks Avenue Name: Brooklyn Children’s Museum Neighborhood: Crown Heights North Year Built: This…
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.
Address:145 Brooklyn Avenue, corner of St. Marks Avenue
Name: Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: This new version, 2008
Architectural Style: Contemporary
Architects: Hardy Holtzman Pfeiffer (1977) Rafael Viñoly (2008)
Landmarked: No
Why chosen: The original Children’s Museum was a Victorian mansion on the edge of Brower Park, founded in 1899.. It was the first museum of its kind in the US. In 1966, the museum was relocated to an old auto showroom while a new, mostly underground museum, designed by Hardy Holtzman Pfeiffer was built, that one opening in 1977. Rafael Viñoly designed his new building on top of the underground structure, expanding their exhibit, hospitality and office space to over 100,000 square feet. The museum is the first NYC museum to be LEED Silver Certified, with geothermic wells for heating and cooling, and photovoltaic cells on the exterior walls to convert solar energy to electric power. The bright yellow exterior is comprised of over 8 million ceramic tiles. The Museum is a valuable member of the Crown Heights North community. Hours and programs are listed on their website.
Photo: Brooklyn Children’s Museum
This building is awesome simply because they are the first “green” museum and they have solar panels! My kid thinks it looks like a giant yellow submarine. Happy Earth Day!
“You really think this building looks NICE?????”
I’m perplexed too. It’s a modern day Chuck E. Cheese from the outside.
From the photo, I thought this was a storage warehouse; haven’t visited the new incarnation in person. When we’d take my daughter years ago, it was always a pretty loose ship, organization-wise.
You really think this building looks NICE?????
I realize it is a children’s museum (and perhaps looks great on the inside), but it is truly butt ugly.
She TRIED to schedule several times, chrishavens, but got a run-around. She finally resorted to a walk in because they staff could or would not cooperate. I know that she had the appropriate number of chaperones, etc. She was all set. The Museum fell down on the job and needs to do better next time.
I heard about that, i believe it wasn’t scheduled but was a walk in. Don’t have the staff, with huge city funding cuts, to do stuff w/o notice.School groups must have a certain number of chaperons per child, too.
Place is actually 111 years old, with a great staff and facility.
I like this building. The staff can use some work on scheduling, tho. It was pretty much a circus for my wife, a city schoolteacher, to get her kids a guided tour (no problem at all at other NYC libraries, museums, etc). She perservered and eventually took them on an impromptu tour. Likely a function of this place being relatively new, but still disappointing.
Rafael Vinoli is a great architect.