BREUKELEN COMMUNITY CENTER

This slideshow is part of: Diana Agrest

Brooklyn, New York City, 2005

The program for a Community Center for the Breukelen Houses, built in 1951 in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, includes: sports, daycare, library, performance space, classrooms, food service, reception area, game room, computer center, etc. The goals of the project are as follows:

The Breukelen Community Center is composed of two main volumes enclosing programs connected by an atrium for informal gathering and circulation. The southern volume encloses the gym, and is transparent both to the atrium space and to the street. The northern volume is composed of a translucent curtain wall enclosure within which various freestanding rooms for administrative, classroom, eating and gathering functions are interconnected by a bridge-like circulation system on the second level. The space between these program volumes serves as a flexible place for undefined program activities that can occur in a more informal setting. The three exterior walls are made of aluminum-frame curtain wall with translucent glass to allow for light to enter while keeping a sense of privacy. The interior glass wall that opens to the atrium is made of transparent glass.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.