The 324-metre tower will be clad in bronze with black metal fins. Image: SHoP Architects

Tower approved for Brooklyn will double the height of borough's other buildings

Staff Writers|Apr 16, 2019

Skyscrapers are on the march and they’re coming to the New York borough of Brooklyn.

The 324-metre, 73-storey mixed-use building known as 9 DeKalb Avenue has been approved by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

It will be Brooklyn’s first tower taller than 300 metres – or 1000 feet, on the non-metric scale. It will also be twice the height of any other building in the neighbourhood, even though dozens of towers have been built in downtown Brooklyn in the past decade.

This undated artist rendering provided by SHoP Architects shows the 9 Dekalb building planned for downtown Brooklyn. In New York City, nothing escapes the pressure to be taller and skinnier - not even the skyscrapers. The last few years have seen the rise of the supertall, a building standing more than 300 meters high. (SHoP Architects via AP) — *An artist’s rendering of the 9 Dekalb building, which has been approved for downtown Brooklyn. Image: SHoP Architects via AP*

Designed by SHoP Architects, 9 DeKalb will will rise in a tapering, hexagonal shape clad in bronze and black metal fins. Despite its name, the building’s address is Flatbush Avenue.

High-rise buildings around the world are getting taller and thinner – and more rapidly. Until two years ago, only four buildings in New York City surpassed the 300-metre mark. Now there are twice as many, with more than two dozen others under construction or in the planning stages.

The Brooklyn tower is being built by JDS Development Group and the Chetrit Group and includes retail and office space as well as around 500 residential units.

The Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn building at 9 Dekalb Avenue at Fleet Street in the Civic Center area of Brooklyn, New York City was built in 1906-08 and was designed by Mowbray & Uffinger in the Classical Revival style.. It was significantly enlarged by Halsey, McCormack & Helmer in 1931-32. The interior of the building is "remarkable" (AIA Guide) and features large gilded Mercury-head dimes and twelve red marble columns supporting the rotunda; these were added in the 1931-32 expansion. (Sources: Guide to NYC Landmarks (4th ed.) and AIA Guide to NYC (5th ed.)) The Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn was later renamed to be the Dime Savings Bank of New York. Photo: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Beyond_My_Ken — *The Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn building at 9 Dekalb Avenue. Photo: Wikimedia Commons*

The design was inspired in part by the neighbouring Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, a city landmark on which a portion of the tower will be built. The inclusion of the 1908 bank also affords the project roughly 27,000 square metres of air rights.

Because of this integration, the developers needed city approval to alter the bank, which will house new shops. The commission approved the addition unanimously, though it raised some minor concerns about removing historic teller booths from the bank.

“To me, this project is enlightened urbanism at its best, where old and new are combined, where short and tall are combined in juxtaposition,” Frederick Bland, a landmarks commissioner, said during a hearing at the Municipal Building.

Construction is expected to begin next year, according to The Skyscraper Center.

With The New York Times