Brooklyn Navy Yard Building 3 Roof Farm

Scope: Storm Water Management through Green Roof Design
Status: Completed 2012
Owner: Brooklyn NavyYard Development Corporation & Brooklyn Grange
Client Agency: NYC DEP
Contact: James Corley, VP Construction, BNYDC 718.907.5942

The Brooklyn Navy Yard looms large in New York City’s military and working class history. Today, the Navy Yard is home to over 200 businesses, including some of the city’s most innovative manufacturers, artists and non-profit organizations. In recent years the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) set the goal to become the greenest model of industrial facility redevelopment in the country. In addition to requiring the highest standards for responsible new construction, BNYDC also heavily invests in sustainable redevelopment of existing facilities.

As part of this effort, in 2011 EKLA first helped BNYDC secure a DEP Office of Green Infrastructure community grant to retrofit a 60,000- square-foot industrial roof for commercial agriculture roof, and designed an overburden system that retains 100 percent of the first inch of rainwater during storm events while supporting an acre of food production. The rooftop farm, managed by the Brooklyn Grange, yields 20,000 lbs. of salad greens, kale, basil, eggplant, cucumber and cherries annually, and hosts an apiary on the site, which yields 1,500 lbs. of honey per year. Its design now serves as a DEP OGI standard for retentive agricultural overburdens.

Project Honors

• AIA Long Island Chapter 2013 ArchiAward for Excellence in Design

• AIA Long Island Chapter 2013 Award for Excellence in Sustainable Design, Commercial Project

• RoofPoint 2012 Design Award for Excellence in Water Management