Brooklyn’s Former Pencil Factory Becomes a 30,000 sq ft Creator Studio

A converted industrial building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, now serves content creators full-time. The Lighthouse Brooklyn transforms the historic Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory into a members club. The 30,000-square-foot space combines co-working, production studios, podcast rooms, a cafe, bar, theater, and DJ booth.

From Cold Factory Floor to Flexible Creative Campus

The original structure arrived as a bare, cavernous shell. Therefore, the design team’s first move was stripping outdated surface finishes to expose the building’s industrial skeleton. The architecture strategy then built upward, inserting mezzanines and new levels throughout the space. These additions break up the soaring ceiling heights created by a preexisting glass atrium. The atrium connects the cellar, main floor, and penthouse level into one vertical sequence.

Meanwhile, the design avoids a single rigid layout. Flexible seating arrangements reference hotel lobbies, cafes, and bars. The goal is a free-form environment that shifts between work, production, and social functions without friction.

Interior Design Built Around the Camera

Every decision in the interior design process considers how spaces photograph. The main floor places communal desks alongside wood-framed private offices and phone booths. However, the Library Bar draws the most attention. Custom wood shelving extends directly into a DJ booth stocked with vinyl records. Steel and leather barstools, a three-seat sofa, green wool rugs, and Artemide floor lamps complete the space.

Moreover, the penthouse houses a wood-clad test kitchen built for food content creators. A custom butcher block anchors the room, while ceiling rigging supports overhead cameras for cooking shots. Below ground, the cellar holds podcast studios constructed as rooms within rooms. This method maximizes acoustical control without relying on heavy building materials.

Exposed Tech as a Design Statement

The project treats technology as a visible layer of the design. TECTUM acoustic panels line the ceilings and walls, their swirling wood-fiber pattern left fully exposed. Cables, wires, and mechanical elements remain uncovered alongside concrete columns. This approach communicates directly that the space is production-ready.

Local designers contributed key pieces to the construction effort. Facture Studio supplied a molded-resin reception desk. UBR Studio designed aluminum lighting fixtures. Together, these elements reinforce the raw, industrial character of the Greenpoint site. The same communal desk system already appears in The Lighthouse’s Los Angeles location, which opened in February 2025.

A Quick Architectural Snapshot

The Lighthouse Brooklyn converts 30,000 square feet of former pencil factory space into a production campus for digital creators. The project layers mezzanines, studios, acoustic rooms, and a test kitchen across three levels. It exposes tech infrastructure as a deliberate design choice, reinforcing the site’s industrial identity.

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

The conversion of industrial heritage into content production facilities reflects a measurable shift in workspace economics. Co-working spaces no longer compete on desk rental alone. They now sell infrastructure that individual creators cannot afford independently. Overhead camera rigs, acoustically isolated podcast rooms, and photo-ready lighting require capital investments beyond most freelancers.

This project also signals how building owners extract value from aging industrial stock. Manufacturing has left urban cores, but the shells remain. Adaptive reuse into creator spaces offers higher returns per square foot than traditional office leasing.

Moreover, the exposed cables and visible technology serve a functional purpose beyond aesthetics. They communicate production capability instantly to potential members evaluating the space.

This project is the logical outcome of the influencer economy reaching institutional scale, the obsolescence of urban manufacturing buildings, and the rising cost of production equipment for individual content creators.

Reviewer

★ ArchUp Technical Analysis

Technical and Documentary Analysis of The Lighthouse Brooklyn Project – Brooklyn, New York, USA:
This article presents an architectural analysis of The Lighthouse Brooklyn project as a case study in the rehabilitation of historic industrial buildings into creative production spaces. To enhance its archival value, we would like to present the following key technical and design data.

The project spans 30,000 square feet and transforms the Eberhard Faber pencil factory in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood into an integrated members’ club featuring co-working spaces, production studios, podcast rooms, a café, a bar, a theater, and a DJ booth. The design involved stripping back old surfaces and exposing the raw industrial structure, with the addition of intermediate floors and new levels within the volume, and a glazed light court connecting the basement to the main floor and penthouse in an integrated vertical sequence.

The main floor houses co-working offices and private offices with wooden frames and phone booths, along with a Library Bar featuring custom wooden shelving that forms a DJ booth equipped with vinyl records, and steel and leather bar stools. The penthouse contains an experimental kitchen clad in wood with a central cutting board and ceiling-mounted rigs holding overhead cameras for cooking video production.

The basement houses podcast studios as rooms within rooms to achieve maximum sound isolation. TECTUM acoustic panels cover ceilings and walls with their wood fiber patterns left exposed, alongside visible cables, wires, and mechanical elements as well as concrete columns. Local designers contributed: Facture Studio (molded resin reception desk) and UBR Studio (aluminum lighting fixtures).

Related Insight: Please refer to this article to understand the context of modern architectural preservation:
Industrial Building Rehabilitation: Transforming Historic Factories into Creative Spaces.