The new Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center replaces an existing building with a 15,000sf community hub for environmental awareness, activism and education. The Greenpoint Library doubles the size of the previous building, providing significantly enlarged indoor and outdoor spaces to house expanded activities related to the exploration of the environment as well as everyday library use. The primary program elements are adult, young adult, and children reading rooms and collection spaces, and community spaces for regular library programming as well as for the Environmental Education Center. Lab spaces for interactive projects, a large community event space (which divides into two of the lab spaces), a lounge, small meeting rooms, and staff spaces are distributed on the two main floors.

The new Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center provides street level exterior green space, clear visual connections to interior activities, and two accessible green roofs on the upper floors. The plaza design offers the public an engaging civic space that demonstrates sustainability and reinterprets the environmental history of the region. Primary exterior building materials include custom sandblasted wood panels on the upper level and custom cast concrete on the lower level. The building will exceed required LEED goals, becoming a demonstration project for innovative approaches to sustainable design and a learning tool for the community.

Marble Fairbanks Architects partnered with MASS Design Group for the design of the New Lots Branch Library, one of the largest libraries in the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) system and a cornerstone of the East New York community. The new building replaces the existing library, which was built on an African burial ground, and is designed to acknowledge and honor the site’s history, creating spaces within and around the library for individual reflection and community dialogue around collective memory, restorative justice, and reconciliation.

These spaces draw inspiration from the palaver, a space of collective gathering in many West African communities, often taking place under a large tree. Under the palaver’s cover, communities come together to engage in dialogue, truth-telling, expressions of solidarity, shared memories, and a commitment to reconciliation and restorative justice following conflict. In the new library, these spaces are found on each level under the branching timber structure and in the sitting and gathering spaces in the adjacent landscaped plaza.

The building façade draws artistic inspiration from the sculpture Lifting the Veil by artist Sanford Biggers, which comments on and critiques the incomplete narratives of American history. The building’s “veil,” rising from the ground, reveals a transparent, welcoming first floor—transforming the hidden history of the site into a place of community engagement and activism at street level. On the upper levels, the veil—composed of two layers of colored aluminum baguettes suspended from the glass enclosure and angled to form a weaving pattern—creates curated views out to the plaza and neighborhood while also filtering natural light.

The new 25,000-square-foot library will expand access to essential educational services, driven by the unique culture of the surrounding neighborhood. In addition to reading rooms for children, young adults, and adults and seniors, program spaces include a lower-level public forum and auditorium defined by a sculptural memorial wall that backs up to the adjacent burial ground, a music room, an African American collections reading room on the ground floor with a connection to the memorial plaza, and a third-floor dedicated adult learning center. Shaped by the voices of East New York, the New Lots Branch Library will be a space for storytelling, shared reflection, and meaningful connection, strengthening the community for generations to come.

Innovation in Mass Timber
The New Lots Branch Library is one of the first public projects to be built with mass timber and was one of seven selected for the inaugural NYC Mass Timber Studio, an initiative by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to drive decarbonization in the built environment. This program supports early-stage mass timber projects, increasing awareness, identifying opportunities, and advancing the use of this sustainable construction method across NYC. As a model for future public buildings, the New Lots Branch Library demonstrates the potential of mass timber to create high-performance, environmentally responsible spaces while setting a new precedent for sustainable urban development.

The library is anticipated to be completed in 2028.

Read more about the project here.

Located at the entrance to the historic Charlestown Navy Yard on Boston Harbor, the new Gateway Center will serve as a prominent welcome center for the National Parks of Boston and will house the new USS Constitution Museum. Positioned along the Freedom Trail and overlooking downtown Boston, the building marks a key arrival point for visitors exploring the city’s rich historical fabric, including nearby landmarks such as Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall, and the Old North Church.

Conceived as a vital hub for orientation and engagement, the Gateway Center will present a dynamic visitor experience at the intersection of land and water. The building replaces the historic Hoosac Stores warehouse currently on site, and in keeping with a sustainable and interpretive approach, will incorporate materials salvaged from the structure’s disassembly.

At the heart of the design is the building’s entrance, envisioned as a “portal” that frames views of Boston Harbor and the USS Constitution. This spatial gesture creates an intentional link between the landside experience of the Freedom Trail and the maritime heritage represented by “Old Ironsides.” As the security gateway for boarding the USS Constitution, the building guides visitors through a curated orientation exhibition before they cross the plaza and embark onto the ship.

The program supports a wide range of public uses, including an NPB welcome center, museum galleries for the USS Constitution Museum, exhibition, an interactive theater, retail, exterior viewing decks, and accessible landscaped areas. The project was shaped through a collaborative process involving the National Parks of Boston, leadership from the USS Constitution Museum, the US Navy, city officials, and members of the local community.

The Gateway Center reimagines a prominent edge of the Navy Yard as a place of discovery, education, and civic connection, welcoming millions of annual visitors to Boston’s historic waterfront.

As part of our work at this historic site in Boston, we are applying circular design principles by repurposing materials from the deconstructed Hoosac Stores building for the new Gateway Center and the adaptive reuse of Building 107, the future home of the National Parks of Boston Headquarters. Salvaged timbers will be milled into flooring, wall panels, and finishes across both projects, while crushed brick will be used as aggregate in the Gateway Center’s façade panels. Reclaimed wood will also support the restoration of the USS Constitution, with surplus material directed to other National Park Service projects. The remaining materials will be sold for reuse elsewhere, modeling a sustainable approach when full preservation isn’t possible. This effort reflects a broader shift toward environmentally responsible, large-scale public projects and redefines how we build for the future.

This project, in partnership with Mario Gooden Studio, provides expanded space for departmental programming and events, including a renovated theater and production spaces, faculty, and community event spaces for Brown University’s Department of Africana Studies.

Visually connected to the street, the addition provides transparency and connectedness to the surrounding campus, celebrating and conveying the important academic and performance-based work transpiring within. The reoriented building entry with a new terrace and ramp is located along the Walk, a vibrant campus green space frequented by students and local community members. Enhancing the visibility of the department on campus, and improving accessibility from the street, this renovation and addition supports Brown University as it works toward goals of diversity and inclusion, sustainability and wellness, and community.

The design highlights the relationship between the Department of Africana Studies and the Rites and Reason Theater. Throughout the building, the department’s shared wall with the theater features a pattern mirroring that on the facade of the addition, forging connections between the building’s interior and exterior, and highlighting the presence of the theater within the Department.

Along the lobby’s southern wall, the entrance to the theater is framed with a custom perforated panel with an intricate fractal pattern. The fractal, a geometric pattern with inlaid shapes that grow and shrink in scale, references patterns used in West African cultural artifacts such as textiles and architecture. This fractal pattern is recalled throughout the department and is used in the supergraphics on select feature walls on each level of the building.