Once a preeminent naval shipbuilding site, the sprawling 300-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard on the East River, first established in 1801, is now a diverse community of over 400 businesses and entrepreneurs. Building 77, a 16-story, concrete-and-steel structure, is one of the Yard’s most active job hubs; originally built as a windowless storage and administrative facility in 1942, and renovated by Beyer Blinder Belle in 2017, the building provides one million-square-feet of floor space for dozens of fledgling companies—and one New York City high school program.
Designed by Perkins Eastman, the Brooklyn STEAM Center is located in a 33,000-square-foot space lodged among furniture companies and manufacturing facilities, architecture and design firms, film studios, and a food court that includes a brewery and the famed lox and bagel purveyor, Russ & Daughters. While it seems an unusual place for a public school, the location was a strategic move; the goal of STEAM—one of the latest models for technical high schools, developed in partnership with the Navy Yard—is to teach real-life job skills in a setting where students can learn from industry leaders, and even intern with other building tenants. Qualifying juniors and seniors from eight partnering Brooklyn schools choose to train in one of five professional fields, or “pathways”—computer science, design and engineering, construction technology, culinary arts, and film and media—and split their days between their home schools and STEAM as part of the two year program.
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