A nonprofit cooperative supporting artisan businesses and entrepreneurship
The Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center (GMDC) in Brooklyn, New York, is an arts and industry complex with incubator and studio space for artisan businesses. The center was created and is managed by a collective of woodworking manufacturers, crafts people, and artisans who formed the collective to purchase their building—a historic mill in Greenpoint—and save the complex when ownership of the building was transferred to the city.
Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center provides a way for tenant-manufacturers to control their own destiny by working together and managing the building cooperatively.
1995 Selection Committee
GMDC preserved the historic building and transformed it into a thriving artist and artisan network where expertise, equipment, and supplies are shared and sold. The renovation established space for incubator workshops and studios with easy access to downtown markets. The space protects 21 businesses, creates jobs, and provides support services and workspace for small artisan businesses. GMDC offers an unusual but highly successful model for small-scale, urban industrial cooperatives. It has since expanded to rehabilitate six other manufacturing buildings to create similar spaces for artisans and manufacturing entrepreneurs.