AIGA: Graphic Design in the Wild: Deciphering the Neoclassical Neon in Brooklyn’s Bustling Cultural District

Nestled between downtown Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall and the leafy residential neighborhood of Fort Greene, there’s a corner address that vibrates with energy. The Strand Theater, at 647 Fulton Street, anchors the edge of the rapidly expanding Brooklyn Cultural District, sitting amidst an explosion of residential construction. Home to UrbanGlass, and BRIC House, a multidisciplinary arts and media center, its arresting exterior of black paint, pink neon, and expressive metal letterforms, boldly announces what lies within, jolting passersby to attention. When walking, driving, or riding past, I always find myself transfixed, displaced for a moment by graphic design writ large. Read more at AIGA Eye on Design >>

ARCHITECTURAL RECORD: Brooklyn's Architectural Moment →

Until five years ago, the stretch of Flatbush Avenue between the Manhattan Bridge and Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn was an architectural wasteland. The strip started coming to life with a small project (WXY’s skillful security booths for the MetroTech center), then with a very big one—the Toren, an SOM-designed condo tower with an unusual, dimpled-metal façade...read more at Architectural Record >>

INHABITAT: LEESER Architecture Transforms Brooklyn's Historic Strand Theater Into a Cultural Space for the Digital Age →

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Cultural District in Fort Greene continues to grow into a destination for the arts with the addition of Leeser Architecture's $40 million expansion and renovation plans for the historic Strand Theater. Built in 1918 for vaudeville acts, the theater has also functioned as a movie palace and bowling alley and will now become a 21st Century, state-of-the-art facility for BRIC Arts Media, a non-profit that presents arts, music, and educational programs for the borough's diverse cultural community, and UrbanGlass, an organization dedicated to glass making and teaching...read more at INHABITAT >>

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Designing Brooklyn's Future →

The old Strand Theatre, sandwiched between the bustle of the Fulton Mall and the brownstones of Fort Greene, has never impressed preservationists enough to gain landmark status. Its neo-classical facade with four Ionic columns has been viewed as an ornament slapped on a relic from a bygone age, evocative of the silent-film era, newsreels and the velvet-curtained silver screen. The rest of the building is woefully bare, as if someone...read more at the Wall Street Journal >>