Reconstruction of Chinatown’s historic 70 Mulberry Street begins nearly seven years after fire
Credit: Grimshaw/NYC DDC
Nearly seven years after a fire severely damaged a historic community building in Chinatown, city officials on Monday broke ground on a new structure set to replace it. In January 2020, a five-alarm fire broke out on the top floor of 70 Mulberry Street, a 19th-century former public school building that housed several nonprofit groups, damaging much of the building and displacing its tenants. Designed by Grimshaw Architects, the project rebuilds the facility as an eight-story cultural hub with more space for the public and a new art installation by Jennifer Wen Ma.
“70 Mulberry Street captures the history and hopes of the Chinatown community,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement.
“For generations, this building has been a place where neighbors gathered, where seniors found community and where cultural organizations kept this neighborhood’s traditions alive. After the terrible fire in 2020, those organizations and the people who depend on them were forced to carry on elsewhere. Now, we’re bringing them home.”
Designed by architect C.B.J. Snyder, the five-story 70 Mulberry Street opened in 1893 as Public School no. 23. Constructed in the Romanesque and Renaissance Revival style, the building had a pressed brick masonry facade with a brownstone base. In the middle of the 1970s, PS 23 was decommissioned as a school and became a community center for Chinatown, home to five organizations: CPC Chinatown Senior Citizen Center, United East Athletic Association, Chen Dance Center, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), and Chinatown Manpower Project.
As 6sqft previously reported, the fire caused severe damage to the building’s top three floors, which had to be demolished. Originally, the museum thought most of its 85,000-item collection stored in the building was destroyed, but much of it ended up being salvaged.
Overseen by the city’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) and Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), the reconstruction project aims to preserve what’s left of the building’s 130-year architecture, with the two-story historic facade integrated into a new building. The stair tower at the corner, with its spiral staircase, will also be preserved.
Upon completion, the restoration will return about 51,000 square feet to the nonprofit groups and add 16,500 square feet of community space, about 30 percent more than the original building. According to the city, the new building includes six community rooms, a new kitchen to serve the senior center, and a multipurpose room on the sixth floor that overlooks Columbus Park and can be used for sports and events. This level will connect to landscaped outdoor terraces facing Mulberry and Bayard Streets.
“Our design for 70 Mulberry is simply about the balance of heritage and innovation for a new community center,” Stephen Pitman, associate principal at Grimshaw, said.
“The preserved historic facades at the base and corner anchor the building in its past, while the modern facility above looks to the future with renewable energy and natural ventilation. But the most vital transformation is internal: creating highly accessible, flexible spaces tailored to the five returning organizations while welcoming the wider neighborhood.”
A new public artwork by Jennifer Wen Ma, titled “Wings of Everchange 易之翼,” will be on display in the new building. Commissioned as part of the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art Program, the three-part installation includes a suspended sculpture about 33 feet long, made of metal, glass, and objects saved from the 2020 fire.
Amber glass orbs will serve as time capsules dedicated to memories and stories related to the building, preserving the voices and experiences of the community, as a press release describes.
The installation also includes an ink painting on glass panels along the stairwell and an oral history component developed with the community.
“I am thrilled that, with this groundbreaking, we are one step closer to reopening 70 Mulberry Street — a historic social service and cultural cornerstone in Chinatown,” Ma said. “I cannot wait to unveil Everchange, a three-part public artwork co-created with the very community that will re-inhabit this space and revitalize our neighborhood.”
The new building will also be more accessible, with three new elevators and ADA upgrades, and more sustainable, with all new systems running on electricity. The project marks the first time DDC has used the Construction Manager-Build (CM-Build) method outside of library projects or emergencies, including during Covid-19 when the agency quickly built field hospitals and testing and vaccination sites.
In 2021, then Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged $170 million to rebuild 70 Mulberry Street; the price tag is now $184 million, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. Construction is expected to be completed in 2030.
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