In the Navy (Yard): LEED-EB Platinum Hopeful Restoration of Brooklyn Navy Yard's Building 92 Set to Break Ground

It's unfair to say that Steve is obsessed with the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I mean, he talks about it a lot and conversation always seems to find its way back around to it, even when we're just talking about baseball or, like, snack foods or whether to meet for drinks. "Hey that reminds me, your question about getting beers, of the Brooklyn Navy Yard," he says. Or... that is not true, sorry. But Steve has been all over the Brooklyn Navy Yard redevelopment at gbNYC, and with good reason -- they keep announcing new, cool, super-sustainable initiatives and projects. And soon, the Real Deal reports, Plaza Construction will actually break ground on one of the coolest of these: Beyer Blinder Belle Architects' LEED-EB Platinum hopeful restoration of the Navy Yard's Building 92.

Of course, given Steve's Navy Yard fixation, you've read about Building 92 here previously. But the project bears another going over. Unlike the other projects at the Navy Yard -- all of them similarly green, but all of them industrial in nature -- the 33,000-square-foot Building 92 is going to be more of a public space, and to all appearances a very interesting one. Building 92 was built in 1857 for the base's Marine Corps commander, and is smaller in scale than the other buildings on the site. While the $16 million project is but a small part of the slated $250 million BNY development, though, Building 92 will be the development's public face -- when it opens in early 2011, Building 92 will offer community meeting space, a visitor's center and a series of historical exhibits on the BNY's history. And while most of what's going on at the Navy Yard -- including the very intriguing Duggal Greenhouse, which will be making the wind- and solar-powered streetlights that will line the development -- is manufacturing-based, it's nice to know that there will be a nice green building for us dorks to wander around in. Steve can't stop talking about it.

UPDATE: He just sent me a text message about how the Navy Yard is located on historic Wallabout Bay. Dude, I know.