City Point

Agency

Pentagram

Practice Area

Client

Acadia Realty Trust

Industry

Project Vision

City Point is the largest food, shopping and entertainment destination in the center of Downtown Brooklyn, also known as “DoBro.” Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street, the 1.8-million-square-foot mixed-use development is poised to dramatically transform the area.

Pentagram worked closely on the project with Acadia Realty Trust, which is developing City Point in partnership with Washington Square Partners and Extell Development. The Pentagram team shaped the program to express Brooklyn’s diversity and inclusiveness. 

Using permanent identity and wayfinding elements and changing temporary graphics, Pentagram designed a bold and uniquely Brooklyn identity for the project, including its brand positioning, advertising, signage and large-scale environmental graphics. The identity is focused on a proud and loud declaration—BKLYN BORN—celebrating the project’s significant local engagement in a borough that prides itself on deep-rooted authenticity.

True to its name, City Point is rising at the heart of the borough, where several iconic Brooklyn neighborhoods and landmarks converge. Located along the borough’s busiest retail corridor, City Point is a gateway to the best of Brooklyn’s food, culture, fashion and nightlife.

The development is at the center of a vibrant area that links Downtown Brooklyn to its surrounding neighborhoods. It is located within an area that includes everything from the world-class arena Barclays Center, the cutting-edge performing arts of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the classic cheesecake of Junior’s diner.

Built by local employees, City Point is designed by the architects COOKFOX and encompasses a group of residential high-rises, including a 57-story tower that is one of Brooklyn’s tallest, an indoor retail street, the DeKalb Market Hall, a mix of Brooklyn-based shops and restaurants, New York’s first Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the first Brooklyn outpost of Katz’s Delicatessen and new locations for retailers Century 21, Target and Trader Joe’s.

The project was executed very quickly while construction was being completed. There was a need for both vibrant temporary graphics to express the spirit of the project and Brooklyn, and permanent signage and wayfinding elements. The Pentagram team worked concurrently on the temporary and long-term needs of the project.

City Point has been phenomenally successful, almost immediately becoming the vital epicenter of DoBro.  Brooklyn Born, City Point’s positioning message, has taken root as a true motto for Brooklyn itself. This is truly a project that is by Brooklyn and for Brooklyn.

Project Details
Bold iconic gestures and typography transform and define this area—while shouting pride and allegiance to the neighborhood.
Juror 1
The graphic treatment works well. There are great bold pops of color as well as small statements in the wayfinding.
Juror 2
Design Team

Michael Gericke (partner-in-charge, design director); Don Bilodeau (associate partner, design director); Brian Banton, Justine Braisted, Elizabeth Kim, Emily Makarainen, Haley Taylor (designers); Amanda Walter (project coordinator)

Design Firm

Pentagram

Project Area

1,800,000 sq ft

Consultants

CookFox (architect)

Fabricators

Signs and Decals, South Shore Design Company, Center Stage Productions