Late Wednesday night, a five-alarm fire ripped through a repurposed warehouse in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, destroying the studios of many artists and makers. The four-story building, 481 Van Brunt Street, was home to dozens of workshops and galleries, including familiar names in the design industry, like De La Vega Designs, Token, Volk, and Ladies & Gentlemen Studio.
The blaze, which burned into Thursday, took more than 200 firefighters to contain. During the fire, parts of the roof and top floors of the Civil War–era building, which is part of the Beard Street Pier complex owned by the O’Connell Organization, collapsed. Two firefighters sustained injuries, but thus far there are no reported casualties.
The condition of individual studios was still being assessed at press time, though the early indications are not good. “We lost everything—we don’t have a single piece left, not even a little wooden spoon,” says Lars Balderskilde, the co-owner of LaNoBa Design, a dealer of midcentury Danish furniture, whose showroom was on the first floor. He estimates that the company lost between 500 and 900 pieces of furniture and accessories. On Instagram, multidisciplinary design practice Ladies & Gentlemen Studio shared a similar story: “Unreal to see all 15 [years] of work go up in flames just like that;…all our sketches, prototypes, books, collected items from our travels and from friends.”
Mark de la Vega, the founder of De La Vega Designs, hasn’t yet been able to assess the two spaces he had inside the building, but even if some of his inventory and equipment is intact, the impact of the fire will be enormous. “They brought in a firefighting boat and were pumping in saltwater for six hours straight,” he tells Business of Home. “Between smoke damage and water damage, just getting back to work is not going to be possible.”
De la Vega has set up a GoFundMe account to pay his staff while he relocates his business. A member of Red Hook Business Alliance has also established a GoFundMe campaign to help those affected by the fire, which at press time raised more than $98,000. Another GoFundMe, operated by the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, which operated a large gallery at 481 Van Brunt, has raised more than $13,000.
Balderskilde and his husband and LaNoBa co-founder, David Singh, are already actively looking for an alternate space, spurred by the impending delivery of a full shipping container of antiques that was set to arrive on Tuesday. “We think we can bounce back from this,” says Singh. “We’ve had a great outpouring of support from the community—from people offering to donate funds to trying to help us find a new space, and even people offering to donate a temporary space. It’s made us optimistic and given us a feeling that we will be able to relaunch.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
