Powerhouse Arts Wins 2023 MASterworks Award for Best New Urban Amenity

Former central power station converted into a dynamic new artists’ campus 

TYLin, a globally recognized full-service infrastructure consulting firm, announces that Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn, New York, was honored with the 2023 MASterworks Award for Best New Urban Amenity. Silman, A TYLin Company, provided structural engineering services for the adaptive reuse project, converting and repurposing a former central power station of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company into a modern fabrication, production, and exhibition campus for use by artists across various disciplines.

The MASterworks Awards acknowledge projects in New York, New York, for excellence in architecture and design and celebrate the best new spaces and buildings in New York City’s public realm. Powerhouse Arts won the Best New Urban Amenity award for an addition to the built environment that contributes to a more livable city. The project design team is Herzog & de Meuron and PBDW Architects (executive architect).

Located along the Gowanus Canal, the former central power station was a circa 1904 brick masonry and steel structure known as the Historic Turbine Hall. After falling into disrepair and left vacant since the 1970s, the building was heavily graffitied and informally referred to as the “Gowanus Batcave.” 

Silman’s scope of work included structurally integrating three main volumes into a single 170,000-square-foot building. Two of the volumes are new six-story and three-story reinforced concrete buildings, the Boiler House and New Turbine Hall, respectively. Historic Turbine Hall was completely repaired and stabilized while keeping the original red brick facade. The New Turbine Hall sits within the historic structure. The complex also houses a large multipurpose events space and includes subgrade parking.