The Architect’s Newspaper: Studio Gang’s Marlboro Agricultural Education Center breaks ground in Brooklyn

Delivering Food Equity: Studio Gang’s Marlboro Agricultural Education Center breaks ground in Brooklyn
Daniel Roche
June 4, 2024

Construction broke ground this week in Gravesend, Brooklyn, on an $18.2 million project by Studio Gang that seeks to deliver a more inclusive food system for an underserved community.

The Marlboro Agricultural Education Center (MAEC) is a 9,900-square-foot building at Marlboro Houses, a NYCHA campus. The compact two-story structure will host a number of functions: Its ground level space will foster community gatherings and its enclosed rooftop greenhouse will support raising fish and plants.

The Rhode Island–based firm Eponymous Practice is MEAC’s landscape architect. NYCHA, New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC), a nonprofit called The Campaign Against Hunger (TCAH), and various New York city and state officials are also partners on the job.
A large public terrace will be located outdoors designed to invite the public inside. (Courtesy Studio Gang)

“I am hopeful that the [Marlboro] Agricultural Education Center will serve as a model for how our cities can address food insecurity, promote access to healthy food, and ultimately increase equity,” Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang’s founder, said in a statement.

Upon completion, MEAC will offer a welcoming hub for multigenerational education, job training, and community leadership in nutrition and urban agriculture. The Campaign Against Hunger is helping shepherd the initiative. TCAH’s mission is strengthening food autonomy and food security in underserved neighborhoods like Gravesend.

MEAC will serve as a hub for TCAH by introducing young adults to sustainable food production. From this new, ground-up facility, TCAH will run its program called Green Teens which offers internships and certificates for New York City young adults.

Studio Gang’s design takes advantage of the site’s frontage by using large windows on the ground level and by creating an expansive public terrace. The lower level of the building and much of its interior finishes will be lacquered in orange. This is meant to create a central, accessible presence that invites people inside.

Because MEAC is sited in a flood plane, MEAC will be elevated above grade. This afforded the building more natural light and views, and the second floor greenhouse is given maximal daylight and visibility.
The space will support functions for a nonprofit called The Campaign Against Hunger. (Courtesy Studio Gang)

The design team notes that they’re aiming for LEED Gold certification. MEAC uses sustainable materials that can endure conditions of heavy use and require minimal maintenance over a lifecycle of more than 60 years.

Equally prescient is MEAC’s construction process. The project is among the first of its kind in that it uses DDC’s newly authorized Design-Build project delivery method. The Design-Build method was first authorized in 2019 and MEAC is the first instance of the method being utilized on a city capital project. This will cut a lengthy contracting step out of the traditional delivery method historically utilized for city capital projects and foster increased minority- and women-owned business enterprise engagement and participation.

New York City Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi noted that the Design-Build process will shave two years off the project’s timeline.