About Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation  

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (BNYDC)
BNYDC is a not-for-profit corporation that manages the 300-acre Navy Yard under a contract with the Yard’s owner, the City of New York. BNYDC leases approximately four million square feet of space to 230 diverse tenants with 5000 employees working in the Yard. BNYDC promotes local economic development and employment, develops underutilized areas, oversees modernization of the Yard's infrastructure, and manages waterfront assets that include three active dry docks and five piers.

In an ongoing effort to collect critical infrastructure information, as well as preserve and make accessible the Yard’s rich history, BNYDC scans and catalogs 15,000 photographs in Record Group 181 at the National Archive Northeast Regional Branch in New York City. These historic images depict the development of the Yard and people employed here between 1900 and 1941. BNYDC makes a selection available to the public through FLICKR.

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
Located on historic Wallabout Bay, the New York Naval Shipyard was established in 1801. During the Revolutionary War, this was the location of the British prison ships where an estimated 11,000 American patriots died. Over 165 years, the Brooklyn Navy Yard built and repaired hundreds of vessels including the USS Arizona and Missouri, the "alpha and omega" of US engagement in WWII, when 70,000 men and women were employed in the Yard. The last Navy vessel, USS Duluth, left the Yard for Vietnam in 1965. For decades, Brooklyn was home to one of the largest concentrations of manufacturing in the world and the Yard was at the epicenter of this activity. Innovation at the Yard was often on the cutting edge as was its integrated workforce representing the rich blend of the Yard's surrounding communities. Despite great public protest over the loss of jobs, the Yard was decommissioned in 1966; that same year the City of New York purchased the military installation for reuse as an industrial park.

The Yard is in the midst of its largest expansion since WWII. Since the fall of 2006, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and BNYDC have announced an eight-building expansion including over 1.7 million square feet of new industrial space, 2000 new jobs and $250 million of private investment. Plans to develop an additional 40 acres are under way. BNYDC has made environmental sustainability, preservation and celebration of the Yard's rich history core components of its revitalization. Highlights include the nation's first building-mounted wind turbines. Five additional major new green industrial buildings and adaptive reuses of historic structures are in design. BNYDC was the first Brooklyn organization to use solar powered trash compactors and is currently testing some of the nation's first solar and solar/wind street lamps. Green manufacturing has rapidly become a key sector of industrial activity in the Yard.

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD CENTER AT BUILDING 92 (The Center)
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at Building 92 will open in 2011 to serve as a gateway to the community. Through an exhibition and programming including pubic tours, the Center will celebrate the Yard's rich and illustrious history including its relationship with the community, vibrant present use as an industrial park and plans for future sustainable development. Housed in the renovated historic 1857 Marine Commandant's Residence with a modern extension, the Center will educate and inform Brooklynites, New Yorkers and the public about the significant role the Brooklyn Navy Yard has played, and continues to play, in the history of the United States and Brooklyn. For more information, go to www.bnyc92.org.

Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation
Brooklyn, NY, USA