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After four years of location scouting, permit approval and cutting through miles of proverbial red tape, New York's coolest new music venue, Brooklyn Steel, is set to open this week. The East Williamsburg space will make its debut on Thursday with one helluva show: the first of five nights of sweet, funky jams from LCD Soundsystem.
Brooklyn Steel is owned by Bowery Presents, which is the same group behind other beloved NYC music venues like Terminal 5, Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom (Bowery Presents was recently acquired by global conglomerate AEG Live). The venue is nothing short of spacious, with 20,000 square feet of space and a capacity of 1,800 people. The place has three bars, a mezzanine and a balcony space. There are also 40 stalls across the men's and women's restrooms, which should keep wait times to a minimum.
The name for the venue becomes painfully clear upon entering—it's set in a former steel refabrication shop and used hundreds of tons of repurposed steel in its construction and interior decor. Bowery Presents tapped the much-lauded L-Acoustics and Arup Engineering to design the space, with the goal of state-of-the-art sound quality in mind. They've also planted a 10,000 square-foot roof garden, which will help confine the sound within the venue.
On Monday, we got an early look at Brooklyn Steel's interior as crews worked to put the final touches on the space before Thursday's show. Take a look at our photos below, and check out the venue's website to see the exciting bands that are heading there this spring.
Photographs: Clayton Guse