The Red Hook Initiative Community Center project exemplifies the concept of community sustainability. The project, located on an industrial-residential edge of the Red Hook area in Brooklyn, is a unique collaboration between client and designer to plan and focus the design of the building to the needs and desires of a larger community.
Founded in 2002, the Red Hook Initiative works to confront intergenerational poverty through education, employment, and community development. RHI believes that social change comes from within individuals, and provides training, workshops, and employment to the community, primarily women and children who are residents of the Red Hook Houses, the largest New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing project in Brooklyn.
RHI provides up to 30 programs and services each month, including tutoring, college preparation, job training and placement, counseling, health workshops including diabetes education and HIV/AIDS awareness, and fitness and cooking classes. Its programs stress health education, and have as well included direct environmental action such as neighborhood tree planting.
The project, designed by local architecture firm
super-interesting!, involves the retrofit of an existing 3000 square foot warehouse to serve as the headquarters of RHI, including spaces for offices, meeting rooms, program and gathering areas. super-interesting! implemented simple but innovative interventions to the warehouse space, creating a series of shared open spaces, large and small meeting rooms, and private offices. Sustainable design strategies include daylighting and passive ventilation, low-impact materials like soy-based blown insulation and low-VOC paints and stains, and high-efficiency mechanical and lighting systems.
super-interesting! emphasized strong community participation, with a community-led mural and a planted green wall over a metal lattice screen across the façade.
The center is projected to be certified LEED-Silver, illustrating how measurable green design can and should be achieved even on limited resources.
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