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Heights Casino
Cultural
In Progress
Historic Photograph circa 1905Heights Casino is an historic social and recreational club located in Brooklyn Heights. Our transformative proposed renovations of the 1904 building have required navigating the creative limitations of its landmark, while fully respecting and deferring to its existing community and architectural integrity. In the process, we struck a delicate balance of preservation and innovation, protecting the building’s historic exterior while maximizing efficiency and enjoyment for all users, from front- to back-of-house.
Cross Sections
Heights Casino owes its complexity of operations to its various fitness facilities, tennis and squash courts, banquet halls and fine dining amenities, and private meeting rooms. We engaged stakeholders and users in a thorough interviewing process, learning about the flow and functionality needs of staff, employees, guests, and the board across each space and program.
Advocating for reorganized, modernized staff spaces has allowed us to reconfigure the floorplan to everyone’s advantage. Strategic internal relocations and expansions address members’ areas that were originally added into the layout as an afterthought, updating them into intentionally designed rooms with effective adjacencies to back-of-house spaces. The redesign strategy also lends to infilled mezzanines, which in turn will provide additional staff areas while also accommodating new sites for facilities and private rooms. The ultimate redesign is a sweeping, yet subtly experienced reconfiguration that uses expansions and constraints to establish social intimacy, easy enjoyment of facilities, and efficiency throughout.
