The Brooklyn Navy Yard: A Mission-Oriented Model of Industrial Heritage Reuse

This thesis examines how the mission-oriented corporation, an emerging type of public-private partnership, delivers historic preservation outcomes in coordination with other urban management goals. It presents a study of four redeveloped sites within the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York: Building 92, the Naval Cemetery Landscape, the Building 128 Complex (also called the “Green Manufacturing Center”), and Admirals Row Plaza. The redevelopment strategies implemented at the Brooklyn Navy Yard form a model for exploring the synergies between the conservation of heritage assets and broad urban planning, management, and regeneration policies. Though its projects have achieved varying degrees of success, the Brooklyn Navy Yard has found a relative equilibrium between retaining its integrity as a 300+ acre historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places and its organizational commitment to job creation, industrial growth, and community engagement.