Fogarty Finger Creates a Champion-Level Home for New Heights Youth at Brooklyn’s Bedford Union Armory

Brooklyn put the finishing touches on the brick-and-stone Bedford Union Armory back in 1908; after years of use by the National Guard, it eventually fell into disrepair and closed. And while its 21st century reopening—with efforts to fill it with a mix of housing, “affordable” and otherwise—has brought controversy, BFC Partners’ creation of a 67,000-square-foot recreational facility within it called the Major R. Owens Health & Wellness Community Center has won louder cheers.

On its second floor, Fogarty Finger designed a 6,200-square-foot headquarters for the youth sports not-for-profit New Heights Youth, comprising a student lounge and classrooms, offices, and reception with a court-facing balcony. “We wanted to honor the history of the armory by recreating some of the gilded signage techniques that were used throughout the space in the early 1900s,” says interior designer Taylor Fleming, who teamed up with locals Noble Signs to make gradient elements for the entry and donor walls in their workshop a few miles away. Floor markings under an elaborate skylight reinterpret reception into its own kind of basketball court, while an immersive installation of pennants honor each college or university attended by a New Heights student-athlete—and blank pennants, for them to look up at and envision their own future.