Brooklyn’s NYU Tandon Launches a Construction Technology Hub
Construction is booming in Brooklyn, including this 36-story condo tower, and now the borough will be a home to a center for construction innovation as well (Photo by Steve Koepp)
As both the construction and working parts of buildings have become infused with technology, Brooklyn’s NYU Tandon School of Engineering has launched a new center to specialize in the field: the Institute of Design and Construction (IDC) Innovations Hub.
The hub’s chairman will be Michael Horodniceanu, a professor in the school’s Department of Urban and Civil Engineering, as well as a transportation and construction executive. He has public-sector experience as well, having served as commissioner of New York City’s Bureau of Traffic from 1986 to 1990 and as president of New York’s MTA Capital Construction from 2008 through 2017.
The IDC will be organized as an industry-supported, membership-based entity. Member firms will be able to “leverage the hub’s resources to improve efficiency, control costs, and help identify innovative solutions that emphasize sustainability, fiscal responsibility, and safety,” NYU said in a statement. At the same time, the hub will be “grooming a new generation of engineers to take on emerging challenges facing the construction industry.”
Engineering professor and construction executive Michael Horodniceanu (Photo courtesy of NYU Tandon School of Engineering)
Horodniceanu, a native of Bucharest, Romania, served in the Israeli military and earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering there. After emigrating to the U.S., he earned a master’s degree at Columbia and his doctorate at NYU.
“It is such a thrill to be back at NYU Tandon to share my experience with colleagues and students that was gained in both the private and public sectors during a career that has spanned four decades,” said Horodniceanu in the statement, adding that he has the goal “of making a positive difference in the design and construction world.”
Jelena Kovačević, NYU Tandon’s dean, stated: “With Michael Horodniceanu leading this new endeavor, we look to greatly enhance the synergies between academia and practical experience in the built environment, offering unique opportunities for our students and the sharing of newly gained knowledge with our member firms.”
In the business realm, Horodniceanu is principal of Urban Advisory Group, where he is a senior consultant to contractors, architecture and engineering firms, developers, and government agencies. At MTA Capital Construction, a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority charged with managing mega-projects like the Second Avenue Subway, he supervised a budget exceeding $20 billion.
The IDC will join NYU Tandon’s fleet of labs based on partnerships between academia, business and government, including the Future Labs and the new RLab, focused on virtual and augmented reality.
Journalist Tyler Woods joins Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
After writing about Brooklyn’s business and technology scene for three years, Tyler Woods, former reporter for Technical.ly Brooklyn and a contributor to The Bridge, will be taking a more hands-on role in helping area entrepreneurs at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the nonprofit local-development corporation.
Woods began his new role this week as the partnership’s director of network, where his duties will include running the Make It in Brooklyn program, a series of pitch contests, meet-ups, and summits designed to support innovation in the borough. Woods said his goal will be to help expand the borough’s position as a technology hub, which has grown significantly in the past two decades.
Tyler Woods, the new director of network for the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (Photo courtesy of Tyler Woods)
“We’re really trying to take that momentum and keep running with it,” Woods said. Besides supervising Make It in Brooklyn, which has provided entrepreneurs with more than $90,000 in funding and professional services, Woods said he’ll manage two other programs: the Living Lab and Talent Connect.
Living Lab is “an initiative where startups will be able to use downtown Brooklyn to beta test their products,” he said. Talent Connect will be a way for Brooklyn university and college students to connect with business leaders. Though it is still a developing initiative, Woods said there will be a job board for both students and employers to utilize.
Woods believes his years of reporting on the Brooklyn tech scene gives him a running start in his new job. “I think the experience will have served me really well,” Woods said. “I got to really know the Brooklyn tech world as a reporter, and I think this is exciting because I’ll get to use a lot of the relationships and knowledge that I gained as a reporter … to affect people in a different way that I hope will be beneficial.”
Woods is a 2012 University of Pennsylvania graduate and has worked as a freelance reporter for the Observer, City and State, and Modern Consensus. He also worked for the Brooklyn-based blockchain startup OpenLaw, where he was the operations and community manager, and as the director of operations at NYC Together.—By Rachyl Houterman
Esquire names Brooklyn’s Missy Robbins ‘Chef of the Year’
The team at Williamsburg’s Misi restaurant, with proprietor Missy Robbins leaning on counter (Photo courtesy of Misi, via Instagram)
Brooklyn’s renowned chef Missy Robbins has won another round of recognition. Esquire has named her “Chef of the Year” as well as ranking her new Williamsburg pasta palace Misi as one of the 20 best new restaurants in America.
At Misi, the sequel to the “pulsatingly popular Lilia,” writes Esquire, “You start with a series of vital vegetable dishes (slow-roasted tomatoes kissed with hot honey, soft grilled artichokes splashed with a minty salsa verde) and then the pastas. Linguine and fettuccine, pappardelle and strangozzi, corzetti and occhi: In Missy Robbins’s kitchen, these very words become a kind of cheese-and-pepper-dusted incantation.”
In naming her Chef of the Year, Esquire declared, “These are crazy times. We need comfort, we need sustenance, we need to get back to basics,” saying of Misi: “‘Keep it simple’ is its credo, and in her hands, serving you a perfect bowl of noodles with butter and cheese becomes a spiritual act, a secular serenity prayer amid the frothing, nerve-shredding lunacy of the news cycle.”
Former Manhattanite Robbins arrived in Brooklyn with a splash when she opened the upscale yet artisanal eatery Lilia, which soon received three stars from the New York Times. Last May, she won the James Beard Award for best chef in New York City. Her two restaurants epitomize a wave of new, inspired Italian cooking in the borough.
Lyft plans to invest $100 million to expand Citi Bike
Getting ready to ride at a Citi Bike dock (Photo courtesy of Citi Bike)
Lyft, the new owners of Motivate, the Brooklyn-based company that operates Citi Bike, plans to invest more than $100 million in the bike-sharing service over the next five years.
The investment will enable the program to triple the size of its bike fleet, to 40,000, and expand its geographic reach in the city by 35 square miles, according to city officials.
Most of the new bikes will be pedal-assist bikes, which have an electric motor that gives riders a boost, notably when going up hills. “That’s what’s playing out with rider demands,” Caroline Samponaro, head of bike, scooter and pedestrian policy at Lyft told the Wall Street Journal.
“This expansion means tens of thousands more New Yorkers are going to have a fast and inexpensive way to get around their city,” Mayor de Blasio said in a statement. “We are ready get to work with communities across the city to make this expansion a success.” Lyft’s Samponaro told the Daily News that the expansion will reach into outer-borough neighborhoods, but could not commit to a five-borough expansion.
Earlier this year, Lyft’s rival, Uber, bought another Brooklyn-based bike-sharing company, Jump, which operates fleets of dockless, pedal-assist bikes. Uber criticized Lyft’s planned expansion, saying that Motivate has neglected Staten Island and the Bronx in rolling out its bike docks.
Motivate has an exclusive deal with the city to operate a docked-bike system, but Uber/Jump has experimented with the city in bringing dockless bikes to outer borough. “The city should work with all parties to ensure access to everyone who wants to ride a bike to get around their communities—not one company which has long left outer-borough New Yorkers stranded,” Uber spokeswoman Alix Anfang said in a statement.
Lyft, founded in 2012, now has 1.4 million drivers in all 50 states, has increased its market share to 35%, and doubled its valuation from just over $7 billion last year to $15.1 billion, the company says. The company has rapidly expanded from a ride-hailing service into mobility of all kinds, including e-scooters, bikes, and autonomous vehicles.
Brooklyn Runs, a corporate challenge 5K, launches Oct. 11
Participants in Brooklyn Runs can enter on corporate teams or as individuals (Photo by Sanden Wolff/Courtesy of the Prospect Park Alliance)
The peak of colorful fall foliage in New York is expected to be in mid October. So what better time for a brisk run around Prospect Park? Turns out you can do that in an organized way, with lots of company and festivity afterward.
On Thurs., Oct. 11, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce will host its first-ever 5K, Brooklyn Runs, in Prospect Park. Organized as a corporate challenge, the run will enable coworkers to form teams and compete against other companies and organizations, but individuals are welcome to register as well. Runners will take off at 5 p.m. and have 90 minutes to run or walk the 3.1-mile course.
The Brooklyn Chamber, which holds several signature events each year, decided to add one focused on health and fitness. “We wanted to merge both the corporate and community folks in Brooklyn to participate in something, fun, engaging, and really community-focused that promotes team building and helps bring awareness to the borough of Brooklyn,” said Mariela Estrella, the Chamber’s director of tourism and business relationships, who is spearheading the event.
Partners in the event are the Prospect Park Alliance and the LeFrak Center at Lakeside Prospect Park, which will be the site for the start and finish of the race. At the conclusion of the race, an after-party will take place at the LeFrak Center, which individuals can sign up to attend even if they don’t take part in the run.
Mariela Estrella, the Chamber’s director of tourism and business relationships (Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce)
The route of the run is a loop on Center Park Drive, traveling counterclockwise. Runners must be at least 18 years old. The top three male and female runners will be awarded prizes. Registration is $40 per team member or individual.
The principal sponsor of the event is Just Energy, an alternative supplier of electricity and natural gas. “I think in today’s world, where people are more energy and health conscious, it just ties in with what we’re all trying to do, which is be healthier,” said Miriam Stiefel, the affinity program director of Hudson Energy, one of the company’s subsidiaries. The company is “very much into green energy and helping the environment. And Prospect Park is such a perfect location for it,” she told The Bridge.
A portion of the proceeds from the event will go to the Alliance for maintenance and improvement of the park, which hosts thousands of special events every year, from the large (New Year’s Eve fireworks) to the small (organized picnics for 30 or more people). “We do everything from maintaining the woodlands and cleaning up the lake and planting trees and flowers in the park to providing free educational programs and running the concessions in the park—the carousel, the skating rink and the wedding venues,” said Lucy Gardner, marketing and communications manager at the Alliance.
Other sponsors of the run include Investors Bank, HSBC, National Grid, Mount Sinai Health System, and Con Edison. The Bridge is a media partner. For more information, email brooklynruns@brooklynchamber.com or visit Brooklyn Runs.—By Arden Phillips
Brooklyn to get its own winter festival and holiday market
Scenes from the new festival’s website (Photos courtesy of Winterfest at Brooklyn Museum)
A new winter festival and holiday market is launching in Brooklyn, promising a destination that will offer shopping, entertainment and winter activities. Organizers put out a call today for vendors and cultural groups interested in participating in the event, called Winterfest at Brooklyn Museum, which will run from Nov. 23 (the day after Thanksgiving) to Dec. 31.
The event will occupy its own small village, a 40,000-sq.-ft. space between the museum and the adjacent Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Planned attractions include a snow slider, a Santa house and grotto, a maze of lights, and a wine-and-beer garden called Vinopolis, which can be booked for holiday parties. The full program of attractions and activities is to be announced Oct. 2.
“Not only will this create a marquee holiday attraction for Brooklyn, but also benefit local entrepreneurs and cultural groups alike,” said Melanie Duault of Dumbo-based Masai Marketing, one of the partners in the event, in a press release. Winterfest is expected to draw 300,000 visitors in its first year, generating an overall estimated economic benefit of $15 million to the community, the organizers said. Entrance will be free and open to the public, with some paid attractions as well.
The pop-up retailers will be housed in 50 small chalets, which can be rented for $6,200 and up. “I have always envisioned Brooklyn having its own holiday market and winter celebration, and now it is all coming together in one place,” said Jeff Golden, co-founder of BearHands & Buddies, a maker of mittens, scarves and accessories. “As a Brooklyn artisan, I am very excited to participate in Winterfest and believe it will be an amazing platform to reach customers from all five boroughs during the busiest season of the year,” he said in the announcement.
Among the partners in the event, besides the museum and botanic garden, are Seasonal Activation Group, a London-based firm that plans holiday festivals internationally, and Totem, a Brooklyn real-estate technology and development firm.
A map of the festival, adjacent to the Brooklyn Museum and Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Rendering courtesy of Winterfest )
Brooklyn’s St. Francis College to launch program in Industry City
Undergraduates at St. Francis College, which has an enrollment of more than 2,600 (Photos courtesy of St. Francis College)
NYU Tandon is there, CUNY’s City Tech is too, and now St. Francis College will also have a presence at Industry City. The college, based in Brooklyn Heights, has launched SFC Innovate, a business hub that will give students hands-on internship experience as well as networking opportunities with the hundreds of companies in the Sunset Park complex.
St. Francis, which offers 72 major and minor fields of study for more than 2,600 students, will have a similarly diverse array of companies to partner with at Industry City.
“It’s not just for one particular type of major. One of the things that we emphasize here at St. Francis is a strong foundation in liberal arts. And because there’s so much variety at Industry City–non-profits, retail, warehouse, media, IT–students will be able to explore from a variety of angles,” Jennifer Lancaster, the vice president for academics and academic dean at St. Francis, told The Bridge.
“Almost every industry that you could imagine is going to have a space in Industry City,” said Miguel Martinez-Saenz, St. Francis College’s president
SFC Innovate is a partnership between St. Francis and Ikove Venture Partners, a venture-development company based in Columbus, Ohio. Ikove’s newly launched FinTech Startup Nursery, an incubator for launching financial-tech companies, will be housed at SFC Innovate, where student interns will help with business development.
“[Ikove] wanted to have a location in New York somewhere and they wanted to be affiliated with a college,” said Miguel Martinez-Saenz, president of St. Francis. “What they do in Ohio is more related to tech. What they’re going to do in New York is tied it to business, marketing, finance, accounting, business development, and entrepreneurship. They were looking for a home for that and we decided that it would be a good partnership.”
To help students connect with the companies at Industry City, SFC Innovate will be hiring two entrepreneurs-in-residence who will act as a liaison team, as well as coaches for the students in acquiring skills and finding career direction. “Almost every industry that you could imagine is going to have a space in Industry City. And so for us, from an educational perspective, that’s ideal,” Martinez-Saenz told The Bridge.
Just the close proximity to the business world creates connections, said Richard Relkin, director of media relations for St. Francis. “When we were over there [recently], I was waiting for the elevator and the gentleman that I was talking to was asking who we were and what we were doing there. And we’re now in discussions for internships,” he said. “Imagine if you’re there every day, talking to the 400-plus companies, the opportunities for students–they’re limitless.”
Industry City, a mixed-use complex of 16 buildings on 35 acres, houses a workforce of 7,000, up from 1,900 in 2013. St. Francis was founded in 1859 by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn.–By Arden Phillips
J.Crew opens a new outpost in Dumbo’s Empire Stores
Sora Suzuki, an associate manager, greets customers on the store’s first day of operation (Photos by Steve Koepp)
To get a window into J.Crew’s comeback campaign, look no further than the Brooklyn waterfront, where the retailer opened a new shop yesterday in Dumbo’s Empire Stores. Far from a cookie-cutter mall store, the J.Crew shop is infused with individuality, from the 19th-century warehouse setting to its six-chair barber shop and assorted local offerings.
Such features suggest the influence of CEO Jim Brett, who used to work in the very same building–as president of Brooklyn-based furnishings retailer West Elm–till he was recruited a year ago to lead a turnaround at struggling J.Crew. While at West Elm, he energized the company’s growth by turning it into an artisan-driven, locally inspired brand.
The store features an outpost of Fellow Barber, a traditional men’s grooming shop
J.Crew, which focuses on classic American styles, had been a growth brand for years after the chain opened its first store in 1989 in South Street Seaport. As of May, the company operates 228 J.Crew retail stores, 175 factory stores, and 121 Madewell stores, a women’s denim-based brand. While Madewell has soared in recent years, the flagship brand has struggled to rediscover a relevant identity and sales have been slumping.
In announcing financial results in May, the company acknowledged, “2018 represents a pivotal year for the company.” The company plans to launch a range of new products and a data-driven personalization engine, “culminating in the J.Crew brand relaunch in September, just in time for the most important fall and holiday seasons,” the company said.
The renovated warehouse gives off a 19th-century vibe
The pivot is evident at the Empire Stores outpost, J.Crew’s second in Brooklyn (after a Williamsburg shop that opened in 2014). In Dumbo, the store features a location of Fellow Barber, which calls itself a high-end, traditional men’s grooming parlor. Fellow Barber opened its first shop in Manhattan in 2006 and has opened five more New York City stores since then, as well as two in San Francisco. The store also houses the Ludlow suit shop, named after the brand’s signature men’s suit, and carries an assortment of local brands including American Heirloom, Brooklyn Candle Studio, Druthers and Only NY.
Why put a store in Dumbo? Well, the CEO knows it well. Plus, the waterfront neighborhood is becoming foot-traffic heaven, while retaining some DIY flavor. “We’re so inspired by Dumbo’s creative, dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit,” said Vanessa Holden, J.Crew’s chief marketing officer. “That collaborative energy sparked our new retail concept in partnership with Fellow Barber. Together we’ve created a real neighborhood magnet–a daily destination for great clothing, expert grooming and local knowledge.”
On Aug. 8, J.Crew will be hosting an opening celebration at the new store. There will beer tasting with Threes Brewing, ice cream from OddFellows, Fellow Barber gift cards, and other samples.–By Arden Phillips
At NYU Tandon, middle schoolers learn the science of smart cities
Megan Nie (in plaid), a SoSC participant, describes her group’s model of a smart city (Photos by Arden Phillips)
“We built this by thinking about problems in our community and how to solve them,” said Megan Nie, who’ll be entering sixth grade in the fall, as she showed off a detailed model of a modern city last week. The venue was no typical summer camp, but NYU Tandon School of Engineering, where Nie and her fellow middle schoolers were capping off a four-week program, the Science of Smart Cities (SoSC), in which they learned about energy, transportation, urban infrastructure, and wireless communications.
“Kind of the core elements of what makes up a smart city. They have a week on each. It’s all very hands on,” said Ben Esner, director of NYU’s Center for K-12 Stem Education, who founded the SoSC program seven years ago. Since then, more than 1,300 students across the city have completed the program. Students get a chance to work with authentic STEM materials, including micro-controllers, motors, sensors and electronic components.
Asiyah Malik, who’ll be entering seventh grade this fall, with her design for a smart bridge. Not related to our website, but a smart name, we’d say
At the public expo last week, students explained the layout of their cities and demonstrated how some of the specific pieces work. One of those pieces included a bridge with a built-in pressure sensor, which would alert managers when the bridge has too many vehicles on it.
The program is taught by undergraduate and graduate students at Tandon, which Esner says is vital to the program’s success, “What’s great is that those students have a lot of passion for these subjects. You’re not coming here to get a degree in engineering on a whim. You’re dedicated to it, you’re passionate about it. That’s one of the reasons the programs that we run here on campus are so effective. Young people see other young people who truly have a passion for these fields and these disciplines.”
Ben Esner, founder of the SoSC program, chats with students at their expo last week
After the public exhibit of their model cities, parents were invited to see their work as well. “These kids are going home and they’re talking about this every day,” said Esner. “And the parents and family members and guardians, the adults in the lives of these kids, are learning so much from them about what smart cities can be. It has a knock-on, civic-engagement affect which I find really exciting.”
Starting last year, summer students can take part in a longer, more advanced program called Innovation, Entrepreneurship and the Science of Smart Cities (ieSoSC). In the last two weeks of the seven-week program, they’ll participate in Sounds of New York City (SONYC), which gives students an opportunity to work in a real-life smart cities project. The SONYC program is intended to build systems to help combat the city’s noise-pollution problem.–By Arden Phillips
Barclays to open pop-up shops at ‘Featured on Flatbush’
Tyrel Kirkham, v.p. at BSE Global, in the Brooklyn Nets team store adjacent to the planned pop-up space (Photos courtesy of BSE Global)
One week the store may be filled with WWE wrestling merchandise and the next it might be the go-to shop for handcrafted jewelry by local artists. Within the coming weeks, Barclays Center will will be launching Featured on Flatbush, a new initiative in the retail space next to the Brooklyn Nets’ team store. The space, which was previously occupied by the television station Pix11, will be home to a series of rotating pop-up shops.
The space will be used as both a store associated with arena events and as a shop for local entrepreneurs to showcase their products. Although the pop-up shop’s first tenant has not been announced yet, The Bridge spoke with Tyrel Kirkham, vice president of global merchandising for BSE Global, which runs Barclays Center and the Nets, to get a preview.
The future home of “Featured on Flatbush,” which will showcase a variety of vendors (Photo by Michelle Farsi/BSE Global)
Kirkham said he suggested the pop-up idea when he and his colleagues were discussing what to do with the space. “And we actually tested it with an event back in April, with the UFC championship. Based on the success of that event, we decided to really build up a platform. That’s where we came up with the idea to extend it well beyond just our programming, to open it up to our sponsors in addition to, and most importantly, the community,” said Kirkham.
To secure a spot in the pop-up space, each prospect will have to fill out an application. “We want there to be a very diverse mix of events and want to utilize the space to the best of our ability,” said Kirkham. “We’re asking people on the form to tell us why they deserve to be featured on Flatbush. We’re hopeful that we’ll get a lot of expression and colors and why they deserve the love and the opportunity to be presented in such great real estate.”
Kirkham thinks the new space will be a great way for small businesses to jump start their sales and public awareness. “I think it’s a phenomenal launching pad for that person that’s been grinding it out on Etsy or a local, e-commerce-only business. We can provide brick-and-mortar space for the community and give them an opportunity to be in one of the largest transit hubs in the city without the risk of going out and securing all of the insurance and all of the other hassles with opening up a long-term lease on space. We’re providing temporary testing points for someone to see if their business in a brick-and-mortar atmosphere is sustainable,” said Kirkham.
The company aims to have the first pop-up store open in August. Prospective merchants can apply here.–By Arden Phillips
The series of pop-up shops will open in a space next to the Nets team store on bustling Flatbush Avenue (Photo courtesy of Barclays Center)
