Portal to Prospect Park: Restoring the Endale Arch | Episode 185

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PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

Prospect Park Alliance recently completed the restoration of the Endale Arch, one of the original portals to the park designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. Get an insider’s look at the restoration process, which required years of research, incredibly skilled craftspeople, and painstakingly detailed work to bring the arch back to its original splendor. We will be joined by Sarena Rabinowitz, Assistant Architect, Design & Construction at the Alliance about the years-long, multi-phase process to restore the full arch, and Curtis Barnhart of Barnhart Restoration & Design, which did the restoration work on the stunning interior. We will also go live to the arch itself to see these wonderful details up close. This program is offered in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, and the arch restoration was generously funded by the Tiger Baron Foundation, with additional support from Council Member Brad Lander through District 39 participatory budgeting.

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How It’s Well Made: Woodworking with Bien Hecho | Episode 139

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PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

Join us for a virtual visit to Bien Hecho, a woodworking business at the Brooklyn Navy Yard that specializes in making furniture, millwork, cabinetry, public street seats, and other custom woodwork from reclaimed and sustainably-sourced wood. We’ll hear the story behind John Randall’s decade-old business, and how he has salvaged and transformed scrap wood, from a Brooklyn water tower to the Coney Island boardwalk, into beautifully-designed pieces of furniture and functional sculptures. This program will also explore Bien Hecho Academy, where classes and workshops take place. We’ll show some of the machinery and tools in the woodworking shop with the Academy’s Director Angie Yang, and we’ll get some insider tips on woodworking you can do at home or that you can also put into practice by joining Bien Hecho Academy’s exciting classes.

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How It’s Made: Scott Jordan Furniture | Episode 46

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Scott Jordan standing in front of a CNC router with wooden parts

PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

Go inside industry at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with Scott Jordan Furniture, a manufacturer of beautiful solid-wood furniture that has been in business for more than 35 years. Founder Scott Jordan will take us on a virtual tour of his shop and his production process, which blends traditional and advanced manufacturing techniques. He will walk us through the computer-aided design system, show us his CNC (computer numerical control) router that cuts and shapes parts, walk us through his beautiful Navy Yard showroom, and share how the business has grown and evolved over time.

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Inside Industry at the Brooklyn Navy Yard: Digital Fabrication, Jan 31

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

Many of the businesses in the Brooklyn Navy Yard bring together traditional handcrafts and advanced manufacturing techniques to create unique, high-quality products. On this tour, we will go “inside industry” with designers and fabricators that use both digital tools and traditional handcrafts to make everything from furniture to tech hardware, and we will learn how companies are integrating 3D printing, digital imaging, CNC machining, and other techniques and tools in order to survive in competitive (and expensive) New York City.

Inside Industry: Digital Fabrication at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

icon-calendar  FRI, Jan 31, 2020
icon-clock-o 2 hours
icon-ticket $35 per person
icon-male Walking tour
  BLDG 92, Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Well Made, Well Done: Inside Industry with Bien Hecho

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We recently had the opportunity to visit a unique business in the Brooklyn Navy Yard that will be a featured tenant on our Inside Industry Tour series, Bien Hecho, a woodworking outfit that specializes in making furniture, millwork, cabinetry, and other custom carpentry from reclaimed and sustainably-sourced wood. Founder John Randall sat down with us to talk about their business making beautiful work, and the Bien Hecho Academy.

Bien Hecho was founded by John nine years ago. Inspired by his travels to Spanish-speaking countries, and his efforts to master the language as an adult, John strives to live up to both meanings of his company’s name – create well-made (hecho bien) projects, and do a job well done (bien hecho). Located inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Building 3, their workshop is filled with wood and machinery that you won’t find in most of the other shops clustered in this part of the building. With a small team of just two full-time staff and a few part-timers, the company has nevertheless taken on some big and beautiful projects.>> Continue reading

Digital Technology Augments Craftsmanship at Scott Jordan Furniture

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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