BRIC Arts | Media House Honored With Excellence in Design Award From NYC Design Commission
July 22, 2010
Brooklyn, NY, July 22, 2010 -- BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn is pleased to announce that the BRIC Arts | Media House and UrbanGlass Projects in the former Strand Theater was awarded a NYC Design Commission Award for Excellence in Design. The Awards for Excellence in Design, presented last evening by Mayor Bloomberg, celebrate exceptional public projects that exemplify the highest design standards.
Designed by internationally renowned Leeser Architecture, BRIC Arts | Media House will be a vibrant multidisciplinary home for the arts. It will expand BRIC’s current 19,000 square foot space (including existing public access television production facilities) to 40,000 square feet, bringing BRIC contemporary art, community media and performing arts programming under one roof for the first time. BRIC House has been designed to serve as a true home for artists and audiences – as a dynamic and welcoming work space for artists, where emerging and established artists can create work that deepens their practice and engages the diverse communities of Brooklyn. It will be an education center, where students of all ages can learn about arts and media. Scheduled for completion in late 2011, BRIC House will be an inviting space where audiences and the public will be encouraged to engage with artists from all of BRIC’s disciplines.
The new BRIC House facilities will replace the existing Rockwell Place brick façade of the former Strand Theater with a glass-walled sidewalk (the urban walkway), inviting visitors to enter into a public “town square” lobby with amphitheater seating over-looking a museum-quality 3,000 sq. ft. contemporary art gallery. The new space will also include an expanded public access television center with a new glass-walled TV studio and control room on the ground floor; a 250-seat (450 standing capacity) state-of-the-art performance space with a sprung floor for dance and flexible seating to accommodate a variety of performance styles; an intimate multi-disciplinary studio/artist work space; and a Project Room off the gallery serving as a resource for emerging curators.
Executive Director Leslie G. Schultz said “We are delighted that BRIC House has been honored by the city for its innovative design. Leeser Architecture’s vision for BRIC House has truly captured the spirit of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn’s mission for this project: to create a welcoming, multi-disciplinary cultural facility that clearly belongs to and serves the artists, audiences, and broader public of Brooklyn."
BRIC House is being developed in partnership with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, with major financial support from the Mayor’s Office, the NYC Council, and the Brooklyn Borough President.
Full Press Release (PDF)