Brooklyn Animal Care Center

As part of SM+H’s contract with NYC’s Department of Design and Construction, we were originally selected to renovate an existing Animal Care Centers of NY (ACC) facility. In our Pre-Design study, SM+H found that renovation could not solve many of the facility’s deficiencies. A new building was proposed by SM+H, which DDC accepted.

The new building will be built on the same L-shaped site as the existing ACC building. This requires phased construction in which the animal spaces and medical suite are built first on an existing parking lot. Staff will be moved to temporary trailers so the existing building can be demolished, and the second phase can be built with public lobbies, office space, and animal intake and evaluation.

Through funding by the City’s Percent for Art program, a series of installations by artist Olalekan Jeyifous are integrated with the architecture, leading visitors from the street to the parking lot, and through the public spaces of the facility. Via a sustainable initiative through the Department for Citywide Administrative Services, funding for a solar array, solar tubes, and plug load controls was secured. The project is on track for LEED Gold Certification.

I have been the Project Manager and acted as a Project Architect and Designer on this project from the Pre-Schematic phase through Construction Documents. Construction is currently scheduled to begin in the second half of 2021.

Images courtesy of Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects.