- Earlier this summer, the architects and urban planners at WXY Studio released a strategic plan for Tech Triangle--a hub of tech activity in the heart of Brooklyn. Image: Brooklyn Tech Triangle / Ken Smith Landscape Architect
Today, at the exact geographic center of Silicon Valley, once home to the headquarters of Intel-rival chipmaker AMD, you’ll find a drab storage facility. Which is to say, the Valley isn’t exactly what it used to be. Northern California may still be the obligatory home for hopeful tech startups, but the relationship between those companies and the region increasingly seems like just that: an obligation. On the other side of the country, however, a new cluster of tech activity is taking shape, showing some of the momentum its West coast Counterpart had decades ago. Pockets in Downtown Brooklyn, the Dumbo neighborhood to the North and the Navy Yard to the East, are already home to some 500 tech and creative companies, with demand for space expected to double by 2015.
But how do you make sure a dense urban area can accommodate that growth? And how do you help its transformation into a zone where connectivity is a given and tech-fueled civic experimentation is encouraged? In other words, what does it take to make Brooklyn the city of tomorrow? That’s just what the architects and urban designers at WXY Studio were tasked with figuring out.
The real point is to get people engaged with the area at all hours.
The team’s strategic plan for the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, published earlier this summer, lays out in detail what it will take to establish a thriving tech hub in the heart of Brooklyn. The plan is wide in its scope. On a basic level, it’s a smart piece of urban planning, calling for green spaces, significant investments in public lighting, and new transportation corridors, including bike paths and footbridges. The main point is cultural: By encouraging people to linger in the area rather than simply working there, the hope is that a shared sense of community will emerge–and with it, innovation. Thus, something such as well-light public spaces at night might seem just like niceties, but the real point is to get people engaged with the area at all hours. The plan, of course, also includes non-physical measures: proposals for partnerships with local colleges, for example, and tweaks to existing tax incentives to make them more attractive to profit-deficient startups.
Image: Brooklyn Tech Triangle / Ken Smith Landscape Architect
But the plan also looks to the future, outlining a vision for how the fabric of the neighborhood might change in years to come. Connectivity, of course, will be key. The plan calls for free and public Wi-Fi throughout the area. But it also hints at how the Tech Triangle could become a test bed for new types of products and technologies–perhaps an experimental hub for new connected objects, smart infrastructure, and other budding manifestations of the internet of things. The Dumbo neighborhood has already dabbled into these sorts of experiments with a “Test Kitchen” program, which includes projects like solar-powered tourist kiosks and tech-driven programs with local students. But that’s just the start. For the area to truly thrive, the plan suggests, startups will need to exist not just in Brooklyn’s office buildings but on its streets and sidewalks, too.
But as WXY makes clear, the most urgent challenge doesn’t have much to do with reinventing the area. It’s simply about finding enough space for it all. According to studies conducted in preparation of the plan, the demand for new tech space in the area will likely reach upwards of 2 million square feet by 2015, essentially doubling the total tech footprint. Right now, only a fraction of that is available. To prepare for the influx, WXY identified a number of key sites, many currently functioning as warehouses or storage buildings, that would be ideal for growth. The hurdles, however, are myriad. In some cases, buildings will need rezoning; in others, private owners will simply need sufficient incentive to sell.
Check out an interactive map of tech companies already in the area. Image: Brooklyn Tech Triangle
Already, though, the area has some key differences that set it apart from other tech hot spots around the country. The Brooklyn Navy yard, in particular, brings a mix of businesses to the table, including a variety of advanced manufacturing. “When we talk about tech, we really want to make sure we have a big umbrella, because the Brooklyn Navy Yard encapsulates so many different kinds of innovation, creative, and tech firms,” explains Adam Lubinsky, a principal at WXY. “They have jobs that are entry level, trainable positions. And that makes this tech cluster really different.” Earlier this summer, the Navy Yard alone had more than a hundred companies on the waiting list for its city-owned space.
In Dumbo, the neighborhood that’s already home to big names like Etsy, the need for space is even more urgent. In that case, however, it’s not just about finding room for newcomers; it’s also a matter of sustaining companies that are already thriving there. “Etsy was 40 people; now it’s 400 people,” Lubinsky says. “So one of the drivers for all of this is how do you make space for the success that’s already occurring.”
Public lighting could create corridors connecting the neighborhoods. Image: Brooklyn Tech Triangle / WXY Architecture + Urban Design
For all the specific, actionable points in WXY’s strategic plan, it’s also valuable simply for drawing attention to the growth that’s already happened organically in these areas. When I talked to him earlier this summer, Lubinsky had mentioned how the Watchtower Buildings, a series of largely unused warehouses between Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn, were an ideal site for incoming tech companies. “There’s 700,000 square feet of space there,” he explained, “which would be nearly 50 percent more space than what’s already occupied commercially in Dumbo.” It held enormous potential for the Tech Triangle project. Last week, Lubinsky emailed me an list of updates on recent happenings in the area. The first bullet point? The sale of six Watchtower buildings, with the buyers citing the Brooklyn Tech Triangle and the demand for tech space as a key reason behind the purchase.
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