58 Kent Street

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

58 Kent Street is a three‑story, open‑plan building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It sits within the Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory historic district, a group of buildings that grew up around the old pencil factory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The block’s story blends preservation with a modern, sustainable renovation.

History and purpose
The Faber company began in Manhattan in 1866, but after a big factory fire in 1872 it moved its operations to Greenpoint, where the complex expanded to eight buildings. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the district as the Eberhard Faber Historic District in 2008. Kickstarter bought part of the old factory complex in 2011 and completed a careful renovation of 58 Kent Street, a 29,000‑square‑foot building that had been gutted in the mid‑1980s and had plans for a hotel that never happened. Kickstarter moved in around 2014 and ran the office there until the company fully shifted to remote work during the COVID‑19 pandemic.

Architecture and design
The renovation was led by Norwegian‑born, New York‑based architect Ole Sondresen, who is known for a sustainable, nature‑inspired style. The project reused the building’s frame and various locally sourced materials to minimize waste and carbon emissions. A central glass courtyard forms the heart of the headquarters, with the courtyard’s plantings designed by Camille Finefrock to feel like a small forest interior. The design also includes a rooftop garden, a library, and a 74‑seat theater, with a layout that supports different kinds of work and collaboration.

Three façades, one story
The street fronts show three distinct architectural styles. The western portion is Italianate, dating to 1860. The center façade, rebuilt around 1895, is Renaissance Revival with brick detailing and arched elements. The eastern portion is German Romanesque Revival, with heavy brick arches and iron details. Rather than erase these differences, the renovators preserved the mismatched façades. They repaired joints and used mortars that matched the originals while keeping graffiti, different mortar colors, and patches that had developed over time, so the building retained its worn, historical character.

Materials and sustainability
Sondresen chose environmentally friendly options where possible: reclaimed wood, recycled denim insulation, and recycled fly ash in concrete. Some interior elements came from other places, such as theater seats recovered from a shuttered venue in the Midwest. Most construction materials were sourced within about 20 miles of the site to reduce transportation footprints.

Interior spaces and uses
The building is designed for a flexible, open work environment. It features long tables for collaborative work, plus quieter spaces like private carrels, a library seating area, a rooftop solarium, and a meditation stone in the courtyard. Other options include wooden bleachers, standing desks, and various meeting rooms ranging from intimate to large. A rooftop deck allows outdoor work and film screenings. The basement houses a kitchen, a gallery space, and a 1,600‑square‑foot gallery for community events and art. The main theater, with a cherrywood or redcedar interior, seats 74 and hosts company programs as well as external events.

Landmark status and sale
The project won awards from the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the Municipal Art Society for its preservation and design work. After Kickstarter’s move to remote work, the building was put up for sale, listed in 2022 at $29.5 million and later reduced to about $25 million. The listing described 58 Kent Street as a former beacon of how creative workspaces could look, while also standing as a remnant of a bygone era of industrial design.