About 370 Jay Street

370 Jay Street signaled a turning point in American architecture when it opened in 1951. Designed to be the central headquarters of the New York City Board of Transportation (now known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority), the building set the tone for mid-century modernist office design. The revolutionary facade gave way to executive offices, thousands of worker spaces, ground floor retail, and the counting house and money vaults for the entire city transit system. The building remained in use for decades, until a decline in the economy forced its closure, leaving 370 Jay vacant and unused for several years. In 2012, NYU was selected to build and operate a new education and research center at 370 Jay Street; an opportunity to bring new life back to the Downtown Brooklyn community.

NYU’s growing presence in Brooklyn nurtures the intersection of technology and emerging media by providing ever-expanding spaces where engineers and artists work side by side. The facilities that encourage this collaboration at NYU’s 370 Jay Street building include media commons, audio labs, motion-capture labs, virtual reality rooms, black box theaters, recording studios, and maker spaces, as well as performance opportunities, and an exhibition hall—all placed together to deliberately accelerate innovation.