The 4,700-square-feet project is developed by Majora Carter Group, headed by Majora Carter, a Bronx-based urban revitalization strategist. STUDIO V is redesigning the historic Cass Gilbert train station, combining contemporary interventions with restoring historic elements, creating a unique community venue for concerts, markets, and cultural events.

Hidden behind prior destructive renovations, the existing structure retains terracotta ornamentation and a magnificent slate and copper roof from Gilbert’s original French Renaissance design made nearly unrecognizable by neglect. The interior reveals a vaulted space, terrazzo floors, and intricate cornices.

Where original historic elements remain, STUDIO V’s design is uncovering and restoring them; where they have been destroyed, we are creating a contemporary language to complement Gilbert’s architecture while reinterpreting its geometries, proportions, and rhythms. This includes asymmetrical operable glass and steel doorways and windows that open to project the interior activities into the street-life of the Bronx.

The existing architecture is unusual but not readily apparent from its prominent position on Hunts Point Avenue.  What appears as an ordinary building is actually a complex bridge structure spanning active train tracks. Its position presents extraordinary challenges for the architects, engineers, and builders as they execute renovations.