Brooklyn’s New Creative Beacon: The L10 Arts and Cultural Center

Brooklyn’s New Creative Beacon: The L10 Arts and Cultural Center as a Model for Integrated Cultural Networks

The opening of the L10 Arts and Cultural Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, marks a milestone in the evolution of urban cultural infrastructure in the five boroughs. Occupying 65,000 square feet of space at 300 Ashland Place, L10 is not merely a new facility but a visionary convergence of public investment, architectural innovation, and community-centred programming. The centre brings together four major cultural institutions—the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), and 651 ARTS—within a single, multifunctional environment. This co-location model enhances opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, resource sharing, and broader public engagement.

The L10 project is a public-private initiative led by the City of New York, with support from the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). Developed by Two Trees Management, it is part of a larger mixed-use scheme that integrates affordable housing, retail, and civic space, thereby embedding cultural production within a broader ecosystem of urban development and community life.

According to NYC Council Majority Leader Laurie A. Cumbo, “Cultural diversity is what defines the energy and rhythm of Brooklyn. With the opening of BAM South… I am excited about the creative collaborations and the exploration of Brooklyn’s creative voice beyond our wildest dreams.” This sentiment underscores L10’s ambition to function not simply as a venue but as a platform for the production of cultural identity and civic memory.

At the core of the facility is a newly established, arts-dedicated branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. This library is conceived as a site of interdisciplinary exchange, featuring curated collections, artist archives, public talks, and a programming agenda that bridges literature, visual culture, and social discourse. Assemblyman Walter T. Mosley noted, “From Basquiat to BAM, art is part of our cultural fabric. It inspires and enriches our everyday lives.” The inclusion of such a library signals a rethink of the public library as not only a repository of knowledge but a participatory space of cultural engagement.

Lighting as Unifying Medium: The Roles of Form and Infrastructure in Enabling Cultural Versatility

Programming at L10 is deliberately fluid, encompassing exhibitions, educational workshops, performances, film screenings, and more. To support such a wide-ranging set of uses, the facility required an infrastructural backbone and spatial organization capable of adapting to multiple spatial and sensory needs. Architect Andrea Steele designed a curvilinear wood partition that alternately separates and integrates the programs of the lower level, connecting the public café, MoCADA’s gift shop and galleries and the Brooklyn public library. This undulating plane plays with different levels of privacy, vacillating between secluded pockets and open public plazas, it guides visitors through the spaces that it creates.

Above, a system of baffles alternately hides and reveals building infrastructure. Litelab worked with Lighting Designer HLB (Horton Lees Brodgen) to develop a LiteBus that provides power and data to DMX-controlled, museum-grade lighting that supports the theatrical, curatorial and operational requirements of the various spaces of the lower level. A linear LED up-light gently illuminates the space with reflected light, while basking the ceiling in diaphanous radiance, resulting in a whimsical condition, where ductwork and diffusors are reduced to forms rendered in light and shadow. The play of light at the ceiling is representative of Le Corbusier’s dictum that “Architecture is form rendered in light,” while expanding the formal focus of architecture to include, if not in some regards celebrate, infrastructure.

This system allows for precise, programmable control over brightness, colour temperature, and beam shaping, thus supporting rapid transitions between dramatically different uses: from an archival screening in BAM’s cinema to a live contemporary dance performance in 651 ARTS, or a community gathering in the library’s central forum. The result is a space that is technically sophisticated yet responsive to curatorial intent and community need; a space that balances and synthesizes programmatic flexibility, architectural form and technological infrastructure through the unifying medium of light.

A Lasting Commitment to Cultural Sustainability

The L10 Arts and Cultural Center is not only a physical structure but a long-term commitment to sustaining and nurturing Brooklyn’s creative communities. It offers a permanent home for institutions like MoCADA’s Culture Lab II, which explores themes of diaspora and identity through contemporary art; 651 ARTS’ new black-box performance venue; and BAM’s expanded cinema and archival programming.

As MoCADA Executive Director Amy Andrieux succinctly put it, “This expansion has truly rooted our work right in the neighbourhood.” Her statement reinforces L10’s role as a place-based cultural anchor—one designed not merely to host art but to co-create it with the community it serves.

L10 represents a replicable model of how interdisciplinary cultural institutions, thoughtful urban development, and innovative technical partners can come together to realize a sustainable, inclusive, and future-oriented vision for the arts in the 21st century.