370 Jay Street
370 Jay Street in March 2018
General information
TypeOffice
Architectural styleModernist
Location370 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY
11201
United States
Coordinates40°41′34″N 73°59′16″W / 40.692804°N 73.987731°W / 40.692804; -73.987731
Completed1951
Renovated2015−2017[1]
OwnerCity of New York
Technical details
Floor count13
Design and construction
Architect(s)William Haugaard and Andrew J. Thomas
Renovating team
Renovating firmMitchell−Giurgola Architects

370 Jay Street, also called the Transportation Building[2][3] or Transit Building, is a building located at the northwest corner of Jay Street and Willoughby Street within the MetroTech Center complex in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. The site is bounded by Pearl Street to the west, and was formerly bound by Myrtle Avenue at its north end; this portion of the street has since been de-mapped.[4][5][6]

The site has historically served as the headquarters for the operating agency of the New York City Transit System, built by the New York City Board of Transportation (BOT). After 1953, it housed the New York City Transit Authority and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which succeeded the BOT. The building is notable for housing the revenue-collecting operations of the New York City Subway, performed by money trains on nearby subway lines, which were connected to the lower levels of the building via passageways.

The building is one of the earliest modernist buildings in the city.[7][8][9] When it opened in the 1950s Lewis Mumford praised it for its design, and architect Robert A. M. Stern in the 1990s considered it a historic building and potential landmark.[2][5] In recent times, however, the building has been viewed as an "eyesore" within the Downtown Brooklyn landscape, and has fallen into disrepair as the MTA has gradually vacated the building since 1990. In 2012, New York University (NYU) reached an agreement with the MTA to take over the building and renovate and restore it to become part of its Brooklyn Campus. NYU started moving into 370 Jay Street in 2017.

Design

An entrance to the Jay Street–MetroTech subway complex within the arcade of 370 Jay Street.

The 13-story building was designed by architects William Haugaard and Andrew J. Thomas in the post-World War II modernist style.[4][5] The building was originally designed prior to World War II, and was envisioned in the Art Deco style.[7][10][11] The building is L-shaped, the long side along Jay Street, and the short perpendicular side along the former Myrtle Avenue.[12] The Myrtle Avenue portion of the building is six-stories high, due to zoning restrictions at the time of the building's construction.[13][14][15] The right-of-way of Myrtle Avenue has since been turned into a pedestrian plaza, known as Brooklyn Renaissance Plaza.[9][16][17]

A small portion of the building has three additional mechanical floors.[15] A loading dock for the building and the entrance to its basement parking facilities is located at the north end of Pearl Street.[6][9]

The building is designed as a cube with flat sides and a flat roof.[7][14] The roof has a narrow Monel cornice.[18] The outer facade of the building consists of white limestone, five inches thick, with over 1,000 identical square and uniformly-arranged casement windows. These windows are laid out flush to the outer wall of the building.[7][16][18] The windows allowed for the circulation of natural light into the building.[19][16][20] The ground level of the building at Jay and Wiloughby Streets is designed with numerous "Corbusian" pilotis forming a semi-open-air arcade, a common characteristic of modern-style buildings. A second arcade is located at the north end of the building at Jay Street and Renaissance Plaza.[7][16][17]

Features

Until 2015, one of the walls of the south arcade featured a 15-foot granite relief commemorating the transportation employees who fought in World War II. The relief depicts a map displaying the battle sites of the war, with the names of 85 workers who took part in those battles listed. It consists of 12 granite panels, each measuring five feet wide, 3.5 feet high, two inches thick and weighing 500 pounds.[2][19] The relief was located inside the building's lobby until 1995, when it was moved to the outdoor arcade after reorganizing within the building left it obstructed from view.[19][21][22] The memorial has since been moved to the nearby New York City Transit Authority headquarters, two blocks south at Livingston and Smith Streets.[21]

Within both arcades and adjacent to the building are several entrances to the Jay Street–MetroTech subway complex, which consisted of two separate stations when the building was constructed. The entrances include several escalators, and the southern arcade features an elevator to the station.[17][23] The unique entrance lamps featured at these subway entrances were installed along with the building, and designed in Art Deco/Art Moderne style.[7] The foundations of the building were built on top of the IND portion of the complex, which was constructed to be able to support a heavy building on top of it.[14][15][24] The supports for the building consist of a structural steel frame and reinforced concrete.[6][15] The location was selected in order to be in close proximity to the lines of all three subway divisions (IRT, BMT, IND) in order to collect fares (including tokens and cash) via money train. Passageways from the subway stations, including a visible door in the Jay Street IND station, lead to a money sorting room in the basement of the building. Fare collection and transport was originally performed using armored trucks, and the money trains were replaced by armored trucks in 2006.[4][25][26]

Inside the building are 10 high-speed elevators installed by the Otis Elevator Company. The elevators were among the first to use the company's electronic control system, the Otis Autotronic system.[27]

Use

The building was intended as the central headquarters of the New York City Board of Transportation in order to house 2,500 employees from several divisions of the board including its executive, legal, and engineering staffs. The remainder of the building not used by the BOT would be rented out.[4][19][28] Among the operations within the building was the New York City Subway's Command Center, a centralized room on the third floor of the building used to monitor the signaling of the system.[19][29] The command center has since been moved to a site in Midtown Manhattan.[19][30][31] The upper mechanical floors housed the telephone exchange for the BOT and later the Transit Authority, the largest in the city at the time of its construction.[15] Rented facilities included a bank (occupied by Citibank) and restaurant at ground level, which have since closed.[13][24][32]

Location

The building is adjacent to the Brooklyn Friends School (occupying the former Brooklyn Law School building) and the Pearl Street campus of ASA College. To the north across Renaissance Plaza is the 355 Jay Street office building, which also houses New York Marriott Brooklyn, or the Brooklyn Bridge Hotel. Marriott owns the plaza. Across from the building to the east is One MetroTech Center, while the campus of the New York University Tandon School of Engineering is just north across the Myrtle Avenue Promenade.[9][33][34]

History

Design and construction

The "money train" door in the Jay Street IND station, leading to 370 Jay Street's money sorting room.

In 1938, the Board of Transportation began plans to relocate to a central headquarters.[35] Architectural firm Eggers & Higgins drafted the original plans for the new Board of Transportation headquarters in 1939, originally projected to cost $3.6 million. The site at Jay and Willoughby Streets was initially condemned in 1928 for the construction of the Jay Street–Borough Hall station of the Independent Subway System (IND), with a parking lot created on the site. It was sold to a realty company involved in the building's construction by the New York City Board of Estimate at the cost of $365,000. The site was selected in anticipation of the unification of the transit system,[10][26][36] which would occur one year later.[37][38] The contract for the building was awarded to the George A. Fuller Company.[36] Construction of the building did not commence, however, due to the onset of World War II.[11]

New plans were drafted by William Haugaard in 1948.[11] The original design was altered, including changes to the outer facade and the addition of the arcades at both ends of the structure.[10][14][15] The building was now being constructed as part of the greater Brooklyn Civic Center, with several other government buildings also being erected in the surrounding area.[14][39][40] Ground broke on the site on October 8, 1948.[14][15][41] The building was erected at a time when many other BOT transit facilities were also being built.[4] The headquarters opened on April 1, 1951,[42][28][41] over two years after the death of Haugaard.[43][44] It cost $10 million to construct.[28] The BOT proceeded to vacate its former headquarters, one at Hudson Street at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel in Hudson Square, Manhattan, and the other in the former Paramount Theatre in Downtown Brooklyn.[42][28][41] On May 8, 1952, the subway entrances between the building's arcades and the Jay Street IND station, including the four escalators, were completed.[23]

In a column for The New Yorker published April 25, 1953, architectural critic Lewis Mumford praised the building's design, calling it "the very model of an efficient office building. Not a cathedral of commerce, not a temple of advertising, not a palace of municipal power: just a group of offices arranged for the efficient dispatch of administration."[43][45][46]

Use after dissolution of BOT

370 Jay Street undergoing renovations in 2016.

Following the dissolution of the BOT in June 1953,[45][37][38] the building was taken over by the BOT's successors the New York City Transit Authority, who used the building as their headquarters. The Transit Authority became part of what is now the MTA in 1968, with the MTA also using the building as its center of operations. Some office space was rented out to other organizations including the New York City Police Department.[5] In 1990, the Transit Authority moved its primary headquarters out of 370 Jay Street, to its current location at 130 Livingston Street.[43][47][48] Beginning in 1998, additional MTA operations were moved out of the building into 2 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, with the MTA signing a 49-year lease to use 2 Broadway as its central headquarters.[48][49][50] In January 2006, the money train operations ended, after which the MTA largely vacated the site.[48][51][52] Following the MTA's exit, the building remained mostly vacant and fell into disrepair, often surrounded by scaffolding. It has been criticized for its dilapidated state, and for its simple and uniform design in contrast to the surrounding buildings. Critics of the building included Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz.[2][53][54]

On April 23, 2012, the MTA agreed to eventually turn the building over to New York University (NYU), with the university planning to convert the site for use as part of its Brooklyn Campus. The building will primarily house the Center for Urban Science and Progress.[12][48][55] The original futuristic design plan for the renovation was submitted to the applied sciences competition held by mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the same competition that led to the establishment of the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island. The original NYU design for 370 Jay Street included a "high-tech, high-performance" outer facade of glass and steel using recycled materials to improve temperature insulation, along with other energy efficient features.[55][56][57] NYU was awarded a 99-year lease of the building.[58] In 2014, however, NYU altered its plans to lower costs. This new redesign was created by Mitchell−Giurgola Architects. The original limestone facade, which has darkened due to age and lack of maintenance, will be restored to its original white shade. The overhaul will still utilize green features, including energy-efficient windows, a wind turbine, and a green roof.[47][12][53] Renovations began in March 2015.[1]

On October 1, 2014, MTA officials unearthed a "time capsule" at the northeast corner of the building. The capsule, a metal chest placed in a small crypt beneath a paving stone, was filled with microfilm records of the building's construction, a newspaper article, and a nickel (representing the transit fare at the time the building was built) in October 1949, and was buried in 1950. The contents were found to be damaged by water when they were removed.[59][60][61] As part of the NYU renovation, the MTA relocated the World War II memorial to 130 Livingston Street in June 2015, and held a re-dedication ceremony in August 2015.[2][21][22] NYU started moving into the building on December 13, 2017, at which time the renovation was expected to be completed by 2019.[62]

References

  1. 1 2 "Construction; Current Projects: 370 Jay Street". New York University. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Dunlap, David W. (April 26, 2012). "As Transit Building Is Remade, a 'Stirring' Memorial Will Be Removed". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Late B. of T.'s Rare Insight Saved Ol' Bronze Monicker". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 16, 1953. p. 5. Retrieved October 23, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Report for the three and one-half years ending June 30, 1949. New York City Board of Transportation. 1949. hdl:2027/mdp.39015023094926.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "A Preservationist's List of 35 Modern Landmarks-in-Waiting". The New York Times. November 17, 1996. Archived from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 "Request for Approval of TSCA Risk-based Clean-up of PCBs: 370 Jay Street Brooklyn, New York" (PDF). TRC Environmental Corporation, New York University, United States Environmental Protection Agency. September 22, 2015. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Francis Morrone. An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn. Gibbs Smith. pp. 14, 20–22. ISBN 978-1-4236-1911-6. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  8. ↑ Gray, Christopher (February 20, 2005). "Streetscapes/Brooklyn; Can Nearly Half a Building Add Up to a Landmark?". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Willoughby Street Pedestrian Priority: Existing Conditions Report" (PDF). New York City Department of Transportation, Arup Group. January 5, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 8, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 "Transit Board to Have 15-Story Boro Building: Order Plans for Jay St. $3,800,000 Structure To House Central Office". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 7, 1940. p. 3. Retrieved October 20, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 3 Crowell, Paul (June 23, 1947). "City Losing $93,000 on Building Plans" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 Alberts, Hana R. (June 26, 2014). "How NYU Will Transform 'The Ugliest Building in Brooklyn'". Curbed New York. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  13. 1 2 "City Transit Board Prepares to Build: Its $7,000,000 Headquarters in Brooklyn Will Start Going Up in Summer, Reid Says" (PDF). The New York Times. January 27, 1948. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Sketch of Board of Transportation Building" (PDF). The New York Times. October 4, 1948. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Transit Building Heralds Borough Civic Center". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. September 10, 1950. p. 21. Retrieved October 16, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Lerner, Jonathan (2016). "1,087 Windows (and a Unique Focus) on the City" (PDF). Oculus. American Institute of Architects. 78 (1): 28–29. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 15, 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  17. 1 2 3 "SUBWAY-SIDEWALK INTERFACE PROJECT: Jay Street Station" (PDF). transalt.org. Transportation Alternatives, City of New York, New York City Department of City Planning, New York City Department of Transportation. December 30, 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 18, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  18. 1 2 Morrone, Francis (July 17, 2008). "Lewis Mumford's Brooklyn". The New York Sun.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Geberer, Raanan (October 29, 2015). "When 370 Jay St. was state-of-the-art: Transit Museum exhibit is now open". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  20. ↑ Geberer, Raanan (September 30, 2014). "OPINION: 370 Jay back in 1950: Shiny, hi-tech & secret tracks for 'Money Train'". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  21. 1 2 3 "NYC Transit Moves WWII Memorial to New Home". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. August 27, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  22. 1 2 "New York City Transit's WWII Memorial Relocated to 130 Livingston Street: Granite Plaque Moved from Former Transit Headquarters". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. August 27, 2015. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  23. 1 2 "Subway Escalators Opened" (PDF). The New York Times. May 9, 1952. Archived from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  24. 1 2 Crowell, Paul (October 3, 1948). "Transit Building To Be Begun Soon: $7,500,000 Central Office for Board to Be Ready by End of Next Year" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  25. ↑ Young, Michelle (February 12, 2016). "The MTA's Special Armored Money Train that Ran from 1951 to 2006 in NYC". Untapped cities. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  26. 1 2 "City Subway Board To Get New Home: Will Leave Rented Quarters in Hudson St. for Building in Brooklyn Next Year" (PDF). The New York Times. January 26, 1939. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  27. ↑ "Plan Electronic Elevators for New Transit Building". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. August 19, 1949. p. 7. Retrieved October 20, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "Transit Board Now In Its New Building" (PDF). The New York Times. April 3, 1951. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  29. ↑ Sims, Calvin (March 26, 1990). "Tracking the Subways: Outdated System Fails". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  30. ↑ "SMRT Study Mission to the U.S. & Canada May 20 – May 30, 2008" (PDF). American Public Transportation Association, Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation. May 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 24, 2018. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  31. ↑ "Western Rail Yard: Final Environmental Impact Statement; Chapter 12: Hazardous Materials" (PDF). nyc.gov. Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City Planning Commission. October 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  32. ↑ "National City Bank Opening Jay St. Branch Tomorrow". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. May 16, 1954. p. 13. Retrieved October 23, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ↑ "Renaissance Plaza-Brooklyn Marriott, Brooklyn, New York" (PDF). Moss Gilday Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  34. ↑ "MTA Neighborhood Maps: neighborhood". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2018. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  35. ↑ Harrington, John W. (September 18, 1938). "City Transit Board May Erect Building" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  36. 1 2 "Transit Building Approved By City: Estimate Board Makes Site in Brooklyn Available" (PDF). The New York Times. May 19, 1939. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  37. 1 2 Sparberg, Andrew J. (October 1, 2014). From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-6190-1.
  38. 1 2 Roger P. Roess; Gene Sansone (August 23, 2012). The Wheels That Drove New York: A History of the New York City Transit System. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-642-30484-2.
  39. ↑ "City Planning Commission Speeds Civic Center Project for Brooklyn" (PDF). The New York Times. March 22, 1945. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  40. ↑ "To Greet Transit Board: Brooklyn Business to Welcome New Transport Headquarters" (PDF). The New York Times. March 18, 1951. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  41. 1 2 3 "New Home Ready for Transit Board" (PDF). The New York Times. March 25, 1951. Archived from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  42. 1 2 "City Board Rushes Move to New Site: Transportation Unit Receives U.S. Order to Vacate and Speeds to Brooklyn" (PDF). The New York Times. March 31, 1951. Archived from the original on May 13, 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  43. 1 2 3 Spellen, Suzanne (January 16, 2013). "Building of the Day: 370 Jay Street". Brownstoner. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  44. ↑ "W. Haugaard Dies, Aged 59". Albany Times Union. New York. Fultonhistory.com. September 18, 1948. p. 18. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  45. 1 2 Morrone, Francis (October 7, 2005). "Abroad in New York". The New York Sun. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  46. ↑ Suleiman Osman (March 9, 2011). The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Postwar New York. Oxford University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-19-983204-0. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  47. 1 2 "370 Jay Street". New York University. Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  48. 1 2 3 4 "Saying Farewell to an Old Friend". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. April 26, 2012. Archived from the original on June 24, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  49. ↑ "M.T.A. Leases Building In Lower Manhattan". The New York Times. August 1, 1998. p. B4. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  50. ↑ Gallahue, Patrick (February 3, 2003). "MTA looks to stay Downtown" (PDF). The Brooklyn Paper. p. 4. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  51. ↑ Olshan, Jeremy (January 16, 2006). "End of the Line: Secret Cash Train Retired". New York Post. Archived from the original on January 18, 2006. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  52. ↑ Chung, Jen (January 16, 2006). "Money Train Retires". Gothamist. Archived from the original on December 4, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  53. 1 2 McEnery, Thorton (June 26, 2014). "NYU revamps its plan for old MTA HQ: In a bow to cost and environmental factors, the school has opted to restore rather than makeover the 500,000-square-foot property at 370 Jay St. on the edge of downtown Brooklyn. Work is expected to begin in 2015". Crain Communications. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  54. ↑ "'The Secret Life of 370 Jay Street' to be revealed in Downtown Brooklyn". Brooklyn Eagle. October 21, 2015. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  55. 1 2 "Mayor Bloomberg, New York University President Sexton And MTA Chairman Lhota Announce Historic Partnership To Create New Applied Sciences Center In Downtown Brooklyn". New York City Economic Development Corporation. April 23, 2012. Archived from the original on October 14, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  56. ↑ Durkin, Erin (April 23, 2012). "NYU tapped to open urban science graduate school in Downtown Brooklyn". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  57. ↑ Durkin, Erin (October 26, 2011). "NYU eyes former MTA headquarters for urban grad school in Bloomberg's contest for new university". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  58. ↑ Chapman, Ben (January 26, 2017). "NYU plans $500M expansion for Brooklyn campuses". New York Daily News. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  59. ↑ "O'Dwyer Charges Transit Unification Was 'Dirty' Deal: Hits Morris OK Of Contracts To Buy 'Junk'". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 26, 1949. p. 3. Retrieved October 23, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  60. ↑ Abruzzese, Rob (October 2, 2014). "Long-buried Jay Street time capsule unveils water-damaged contents". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  61. ↑ Donohue, Pete (October 2, 2014). "Brooklyn time capsule from 1950 proves to be soggy bust". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  62. ↑ Toussaint, Kristin (December 13, 2017). "NYU moves tech hub into long-empty former MTA headquarters". Metro US. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
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