Transportation Building
370 Jay Street | also 368 Jay Street | Downtown Brooklyn | built 1970
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1948
Ground is broken for the Board of Transportation's Jay Street headquarters
The Board of Transportation began planning a central headquarters in 1938, and Eggers & Higgins drew up the first scheme the next year. World War II halted the project, and William Haugaard produced new plans in 1948 that added arcades at both ends of the building. The site, condemned in 1928 for the Jay Street subway station, broke ground on October 8, 1948.
“Ground broke on the site on October 8, 1948.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1951
The Board of Transportation opens its new Jay Street headquarters
The headquarters opened on April 1, 1951, at a construction cost of $10 million, more than two years after Haugaard's death. The Board of Transportation then left its older offices on Hudson Street in Manhattan and in the former Paramount Theatre in Downtown Brooklyn. Subway entrances linking the arcades to the Jay Street station, with four escalators, were finished in May 1952.
“The headquarters opened on April 1, 1951, over two years after the death of Haugaard. It cost $10 million to construct.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1951
A 13-story limestone block rises on piers over the Jay Street subway station
William Haugaard and Andrew J. Thomas designed the building as a flat-roofed cube faced in limestone, with rows of identical casement windows set flush with the wall. Its ground level is a semi-open arcade on piers, and the foundations stand over the IND subway station. The site was chosen for its closeness to the lines of all three subway divisions, so money trains could deliver fares through passageways to the building.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1953
Critic Lewis Mumford admires the building in The New Yorker
In his April 25, 1953 column for The New Yorker, the critic Lewis Mumford called the new headquarters an efficient office building rather than a monument to commerce, advertising or municipal power. He described it as simply a group of offices arranged for administration.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2006
The money trains stop running and the transit agency largely empties the building
The Transit Authority moved its main headquarters to 130 Livingston Street in 1990, and more MTA operations went to 2 Broadway starting in 1998. The money train operations that had fed the building's basement sorting room ended in January 2006, after which the MTA largely vacated it. The building then sat mostly empty, often wrapped in scaffolding, and drew criticism for its poor condition, including from Borough President Marty Markowitz.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
MTA workers dig up a time capsule from the building's northeast corner
On October 1, 2014, MTA officials unearthed a metal chest from a small crypt under a paving stone at the northeast corner. Buried in 1950, it contained a newspaper article, a nickel (the subway fare when the building was built) and microfilm documenting the construction. Water had damaged the contents by the time the chest was opened.
“On October 1, 2014, MTA officials unearthed a "time capsule" at the northeast corner of the building.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
A World War II memorial to transit workers moves to the Livingston Street headquarters
A granite relief of twelve panels, a map of battle sites with the names of 85 transportation workers who served in the war, was long part of the building. It was moved from the lobby to the outdoor arcade in 1995. During NYU's renovation, the MTA moved it in June 2015 to 130 Livingston Street, where it was rededicated that August.
“The relief depicts a map displaying the battle sites of the war, with the names of 85 workers who took part in those battles listed.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2017
NYU begins moving into the former transit headquarters
The MTA agreed on April 23, 2012 to hand the building to New York University, which received a 99-year lease for its Brooklyn campus and the Center for Urban Science and Progress. NYU scaled back its first glass-and-steel design in 2014 to cut costs, and Mitchell-Giurgola's plan restored the limestone to its original white. Renovation began in March 2015, and NYU started moving in on December 13, 2017.
“NYU started moving into the building on December 13, 2017…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 370 Jay StreetWikipedia
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