Reconstruction of Chinatown's Historic 70 Mulberry Street Begins in New York, a $184 Million Project Due in 2030
NEW YORK — Reconstruction of the historic 70 Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Chinatown, New York County, New York, officially began on November 9, nearly seven years after a five-alarm fire severely damaged the building in January 2020.
Built in 1893 as Public School 23, the building became a Chinatown community center in the 1970s and housed five nonprofit groups — the Chinatown Senior Citizen Center, the United East Athletic Association, the Chen Dance Center, the Museum of Chinese in America and the Chinatown Manpower Project — all displaced by the fire.
Designed by Grimshaw Architects, the project will preserve the two-story historic facade and build an eight-story cultural hub, returning about 51,000 square feet to the nonprofit groups and adding 16,500 square feet of community space. Artist Jennifer Wen Ma will create an installation for the new building. The project now costs $184 million, up from the $170 million pledged in 2021, and is expected to be completed in 2030.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement that 70 Mulberry Street captures the history and hopes of the Chinatown community, a place where generations of neighbors gathered, seniors found community and cultural organizations kept the neighborhood's traditions alive.
Source: 6sqft
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 纽约曼哈顿华埠勿街街景。（Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons）
