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Initiated by two NYC agencies, the L10 Arts and Cultural Center is a new addition to Brooklyn's cultural landscape that unites four key arts organizations under one roof to create an inclusive, collaborative space for artists and patrons. This 65,000 sf center offers gallery and performance spaces, cinemas, rehearsal studios, archives, and a library dedicated to arts and culture.
L10 seeks to create a new ‘common ground’. From site strategy and internal organization, to form and materials, every aspect of the design seeks to break down the many barriers that prevent the public’s access to the arts. The design connects the diverse arts organizations as a collective, where programmatic synergies and shared resources create an impact greater than the sum of their parts.
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The arts made visible is only half the equation. The goal is to be fully integrated into the community where value manifests as daily life experiences.
Occupying Floors 2-4 of a mixed-use development, we knew these diverse institutions could not succeed if not visible and accessible by the surrounding community, if not perceived as a direct extension of the public realm.
The design engages the urban context with two critical moves. First, the streetscape steps up to create an elevated topography that supports film screenings, dance performances, and community events, ensuring the public’s direct access to the cultural landscape within. Second, the public procession extends past the transparent façade, weaving the programs into a seamless panorama set against the backdrop of the city.
From the initial concept, our team sought to design a high-performance project, utilizing efficient lighting systems, optimized ventilation controls, a water-cooled HVAC system tied to a high-efficiency plant, low flow water fixtures, and specifying high recycled content products. Our attention to wellness led us to maximize natural light wherever possible and improve indoor air quality with a carefully selected material palette. All finishes were fabricated and installed via rigorous construction IAQ management. The stepped plaza and open interior layout utilize urban design principles to promote the physical health and well-being of the community and encourage exploration of the arts, fostering social and cultural resilience. Certified LEED Gold and NYC Leading Green Public Project.
Nestled at a key intersection in Downtown Brooklyn, the 65,000-SF L10 Arts and Cultural Center emerges as a vibrant hub for BAM, BPL, MoCADA, and 651 ARTS. Purpose-built to advance cultural expression and social equity, the center elevates underrepresented voices while fostering collaborative, interdisciplinary work across visual, literary, and performing arts.
Arriving via the elevated plaza, visitors encounter the café acting as a civic gateway. Instead of separating library and gallery with straight walls, a curvilinear element expands and contracts to increase linear exhibition space and display shelving. MoCADA’s undulating gallery accommodates a range of exhibitions and multimedia and the library’s wood-lined perimeter integrates books, display areas, and flexible seating into a “theater in the round," fostering community interaction.
The wood ribbon continues through BAM’s spaces with large portals signaling access to ticketing, concessions, and peels open to guide patrons into the venues. A glass-enclosed, double-height reading room provides a place to review BAM’s first publicly accessible film archive surrounded by views of the plaza and neighborhood. Occupying the uppermost floor, 651 ARTS’ has the city skyline as their backdrop, reflecting their integration within the cultural landscape. The Blackbox Theater - equipped with telescopic seating, acoustic panels, pipe grids and blackout shades - provides the adaptability and flexibility needed to host diverse events.
Architecture starts and ends with the mind. Between is imagination, courage, and a profound understanding of who we are as humans. Andrea knows who we are. She has the eye, the wisdom and the heart. This combination manifests in a way that when you walk into this space, you feel safe, comfortable, and inspired. If you think about places you’ve moved through while feeling nothing more than being sheltered, then you understand the difference. Andrea’s spaces are evocative. I know no bigger luxury.
Andrea Steele Architecture is an award-winning New York-based architectural practice working across the United States and internationally. With a talented team of architects, interior designers, and urban planners from around the world, ASA collaborates with cultural institutions, public agencies, developers and private clients to co-create shared futures. ASA approaches architecture as a way of creating connections and alignments: between a client’s culture and the public sphere; between the local and the universal; between thought and action. Our work aims to achieve sustainability beyond the preservation of natural resources, to foster social, cultural, and financial resilience that catalyzes positive change both for our client communities and the public at large.
