Building 128

 factory, machine shop, historical building, United States Navy

Built in 1899 to house the machinery shops and assembly areas for steam boilers and ancillary systems being constructed for use aboard US Navy vessels, Building 128's cavernous dimensions were added to several times during its service life as technological advances saw the use of larger coal-fired boilers give way to more economical and "smaller" oil-fired systems.

Continuing to serve as a boiler shop throughout its life, Building 128 was also heavily utilized as a machine shop for the Brooklyn Navy Yard with its dimensions allowing for objects as large as battleship gun turret assemblies to be constructed within its interior.

Idled by the shutdown of the Navy Yard in 1966, Building 128 was used many times as the centerpiece of reuse offers made by the City of New York to several ship construction and ship repair companies. However, its enormous size began to prove more of a hindrance to its reuse in a commercial manner, and aside from light usage as a machine shop by SeaTrain Shipbuilding in the 1970's Building 128 slowly began to become increasingly derelict.

Presently one of the oldest surviving buildings from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Building 128 has recently become the target of a large-scale revitalization and rehabilitation effort aimed at turning the building into a green manufacturing space, with environmental remediation beginning in early 2012.