Digital Technology Augments Craftsmanship at Scott Jordan Furniture

Sitting at his desk using a mouse and looking at a screen with a chair on it, Scott Jordan builds a chair, virtually.

One of the hallmarks of the companies that we feature on our Making It In NYC tour series at the Brooklyn Navy Yard is that they wed traditional crafts with advanced technology to create unique, innovative, and competitive products. Scott Jordan Furniture is a perfect example of this union.

Founded in 1980, the company has had its home at the Brooklyn Navy Yard since 1988, back when there were fewer neighbors and fewer amenities than you find around the Yard today. Since the company’s inception, the eponymous Scott Jordan and his team have made solid wood beds, tables, chairs and other home furnishings by hand with original designs.>> Continue reading

Inside Industry: Space Suit Maker Final Frontier Design at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, on the fifth floor of the cavernous Building 280, sits a small studio with very large ambitions. Inside you will find bolts of high-tech fabrics, spools of nylon chord, helmets and gloves of all varieties, and a small team of designers.

This is the home of Final Frontier Design, a company that designs and builds space suits for the burgeoning commercial space travel industry. While the industry is in its very earliest stages, Final Frontier is working with a number of companies and with NASA to create a better, safer, and more cost-effective suit to take citizens into space.>> Continue reading