It is rare that in addition to designing and building a space, one gets to choose the space as well. Here we were tasked with identifying a neighborhood that could be home to Brooklyn’s own specialty coffee roaster and café. Having settled on the northern part of DUMBO on the edge of Vinegar Hill, we identified 25 Jay St. as the perfect building. When we found out later that in fact the building had been the headquarters of another iconic Brooklyn coffee company a century earlier, we were confirmed in our belief that this was home. The space had seen horrible mistreatment over the last century and required a complete re-do. Having stripped the space back to bare beams, we sought to impose as little as possible in order to retain the historic industrial feel, yet make it into an inviting, vibrant and charming roast facility and cafe. The materials are almost exclusively recycled with the exception of the black locust shelving which we sawed and milled on Long Island.
