Across from BAM, New Mixed-Use Building to Rise in Brooklyn Cultural District

New York, NY, February 06, 2014 --(PR.com)-- The New York Hotel Trades Council & Hotel Association of New York City, Inc., Health Center, Inc. (HCI) has chosen architecture firm Francis Cauffman to design a 180,000-square-foot, 12-story mixed-use building that will house its new Brooklyn Health Center in the Cultural District. The facility will be the latest in a series of new buildings that have brought commercial, cultural, community, and high-rise residential spaces to the neighborhood in the past year.

Located at 620 Fulton Avenue, the site is near the Atlantic Avenue transit hub, with access to multiple subway lines and the Long Island Railroad. The Cultural District is known for its vibrant cultural scene, which includes landmarks like the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Theater for a New Audience, which opened in 2013. The new building will be a gateway to the community, incorporating new public spaces with existing ones.

HCI has a proud history of 65 years of continuous service as an integrated delivery system, providing a full range of ambulatory services to 33,000 unionized hotel workers and their families in New York City. In addition to the 65,000-square-foot health center for HCI’s members, the new building will include 20,000 square feet of retail space and 70,000 square feet of office space.

"This new state-of-the-art facility will offer high-quality healthcare to our Brooklyn members, utilizing the latest technology,” said Dr. Robert Greenspan, Executive Director of HCI. “As an organization HCI believes that our continued success will come from being proactive about health. It is a transformation from the past – focused on managing illness and costs – to something vastly different. HCI envisions healthcare designed around our members, who have common predictable health needs, and creating a system that understands and manages the health risks and behaviors of our population.

"Patients will need to not just be empowered to take an active role in their own healthcare, but inspired to do so. Our new building needs to be inviting and intuitive. It has to be a place that members come to as part of their normal life, not just when something bad happens to them. Francis Cauffman not only understands our goal for this project, but shares in our vision of the future of health care. We are confident that its talented team will deliver a design that effectively meets our members’ needs."

“We are excited to design a next-generation healthcare facility for HCI that will transform the urban landscape of a quickly-evolving borough,” said James Crispino, AIA, NCARB, Design Principal of Francis Cauffman.

The project team includes JB&B (building systems engineer), Thornton Tomasetti (structural engineer), Langan (site/civil) and Skanska (construction manager.) The team is targeting LEED Silver.

About Francis Cauffman
@FrancisCauffman
Francis Cauffman, an award-winning architecture firm with offices in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C., has supported its clients since 1954 with innovative architecture, planning, and interior design services. The practice is recognized for being on the leading edge of new investigations in workplace strategies and corporate research, corporate and advanced technology, healthcare, and academic research and teaching. Francis Cauffman has a staff of 120 architects, planners, and interior designers and is active in 20 states and three countries. Francis Cauffman’s clients include multinational corporations, prestigious academic institutions, and top healthcare systems.