A philanthropist spent $180 million to transform a relic of Gowanus’s industrial past into Powerhouse Arts, equipped to produce the art of the future. Rising at the edge of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal — are zoned superfund site with developers racing to build — the colossal industrial relic known locally as the Batcave has found its own Bruce Wayne.

Over the last decade, the press-shy philanthropist Joshua Rechnitz gave $180 million through his foundations to transform the 119-year-old red brick behemoth — the former Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company’s central power station and more recently home to squatters and underground raves— into a multidisciplinary hub of artistic production called Powerhouse Arts. Consider it his gift to Gotham.

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Read the full article: New York Times