September 2, 2026

Surprise cameo!

We went to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 on opening weekend and spotted one of BKSK’s projects! The Polhemus Memorial Hospital project (historic teaching hospital in the Cobble Hill Historic District Extension of Brooklyn converted to condos) had a cameo.

Two women stand on a city street in Brooklyn, looking up at a tall, ornate building with large windows. A traffic light and street sign are visible. The scene suggests an urban setting.

The character Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) meets a contractor who claims to have converted the building into condos. The exterior and the lobby are briefly visible in the frame and while she enters the building.

A woman with long dark hair, wearing a black shirt with silver studs and a black tie, smiles while standing by a glass door with an emblem. A building and a white car are visible outside.

According to Movie-Locations.com: “Befitting her new position – and salary – Andy moves into a smart new apartment…in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, it was once the old Polhemus Memorial Clinic, built in 1897 as an extension of a hospital for the poor, 100 Amity Street at Henry Street. Claimed to be the first skyscraper hospital ever built, the eight story tower stood vacant until being repurposed and restored as condominiums in 2020. This story is mirrored in the film as Andy gets off on the wrong foot with Aussie Peter (Patrick Brammall) who turns out to be the building’s (fictitious) developer.”

A man in a blue shirt holds sunglasses and stands in front of a desk, where another man in a suit is seated, looking down. The setting appears to be an office or reception area.

Polhemus Memorial
The real finished lobby with coffered ceiling that is visible in the movie!

This isn’t entirely the true story of the redevelopment of Polhemus Memorial Hospital into the Polhemus Residences by BKSK Architects. The conversion to condominiums was completed in 2019. The building was originally constructed as a teaching clinic adjacent to the Long Island College Hospital. After the clinic closed in 2008 and the building sold in an effort for LICH to avoid bankruptcy, the building was retired from use and development plans began. BKSK was engaged in 2014 as the architect to transform the former teaching hospital into condominiums.

Polhemus Memorial

The 8-story Beaux-Arts building, constructed in 1897 was the nation’s first “vertical hospital”. Its conversion into 17 unique condominium units involved a complex restructuring of all framing, with a new central core and adjusted floor levels to make appropriate residential sill heights. The facades, street walls and very visible side walls have been carefully restored. Subtle but important exterior changes were unanimously approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Polhemus
Part of the presentation of the new design and preservation that was approved by the LPC.
Polhemus Memorial - Facade
Building entrance, post-preservation and conversion, 2020.

A woman with dark hair, wearing a black outfit, stands by an open glass door looking outside. There is a building, parked car, and a few people visible in the background through the doorway.

Years of neglect and disrepair to the building’s interior led to the significant rehabilitation of all interior spaces. Our design team paid careful attention to and incorporated surviving 19th Century design elements. Some structural beams are maintained; detailed iron work on the exterior was preserved; a coffered ceiling in the lobby seen in the movie, was recreated to its original design and the copper cornice at the 7th floor was repaired.

Polhemus Memorial - KitchenPolhemus Memorial - Street View

Polhemus Memorial - Facade
Restored and preserved historic facade

 

The traditional Beaux Arts exterior façade masked contemporary forward-thinking construction systems, hinted at by the building’s unusual windows. A Roebling floor system, one of the first concrete fireproof floor systems to be used in the US and in NYC, a successor to terra cotta floors was found within. The building was designed around two column-free, full-floor, double-height teaching auditoriums – a lecture hall and a clinical hall, with high windowsills. The removal of these spaces to allow for reconfiguration into residential layouts. The hospital’s use-specific spaces, neither code compliant nor flexible, afforded the team an opportunity to combine historic building characteristics with unabashedly contemporary elements and amenities.

Architectural cross-section of the Polhemus Memorial Clinic, showing labeled rooms, staircases, elevators, and ventilation shafts on multiple floors, including laboratories, treatment rooms, and waiting areas.
Section showing two teaching amphitheaters that were removed from the Polhemus Memorial Clinic during conversion.
Cross-section drawing of the Polhemus Memorial Clinic, showing labeled rooms including clinical hall, lecture hall, labs, engine room, and more across multiple floors.
Section showing two teaching amphitheaters that were removed from the Polhemus Memorial Clinic during conversion.

 

 

Workers in safety vests and helmets stand in the midst of renovation inside a large, old, partially demolished auditorium with exposed beams and peeling paint.
Cleaning out the lower teaching auditorium to make room for steel installation.
Workers in hard hats stand amid debris in a large, partially demolished industrial building, with twisted steel beams and damaged floors visible. Bright light shines from the center where cutting is taking place.
Auditorium Demolition
Sunlit interior of an abandoned, two-story building with broken windows, peeling paint, exposed beams, and deteriorating walls, creating a sense of decay and neglect.
Demolition
A partially demolished building interior shows exposed beams, debris, and scaffolding. A construction worker in a hard hat stands on an upper floor amid the renovation work.
Structural steel installation within the space that housed the teaching hospital spaces.

The stacked double-height teaching spaces, whose presence was signaled by cast-iron bays on both street façades, created a host of structural and logistical challenges that were addressed by the project team. A carefully managed removal of the interior spaces created a “donut” of existing structure to stay in place, linked to the two primary facades and left several historic structural elements visible within the units.

A new elevator/stair core was located in the “donut hole”, positioned to allow for flexible residential layouts and expansive views. Removing the auditoriums also involved a reconciliation of varying floor heights, and the interior planning was able to feature unusual windowsill and head heights as welcome vestiges of the building’s original use.

Polhemus Memorial
Modern open kitchen in unit with facade detail visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
A view from a window shows a decorative column in the foreground, with brick buildings, a smokestack, and a blue sky with scattered clouds in the background.
Facade detail visible through window.
Polhemus Memorial - Street View
Unusual windowsill and head heights are welcome vestiges of the building’s original use.

The interior design work – entry lobby, amenities, unit plans and material choices throughout – was conceived as a balance of traditional and contemporary elements, sometimes involving the re-creation of decorative features (example – the lobby ceiling) and incorporating geometrically-patterned stone floors. Our goal was to maintain a clear sense of reverence for the building’s historic character and provide the new occupants with a quality of space commensurate with the building’s distinction and the expectations of buyers.

Polhemus Memorial

Polhemus MemorialModern bathroom with light wood vanity, large mirror, and marble walls and floor. Open shelves hold towels and decor. A glass shower and a toilet are visible. Recessed lighting and a small chandelier illuminate the space.A modern bathroom in Polhemus Memorial with marble walls and floors, a glass shower enclosure with a metal handle, and a bathtub with a chrome faucet. A cityscape is visible through the large window.

The unit owners share three levels of indoor and outdoor amenities plus an on-site concierge and private underground parking. We designed a new sub-cellar two-story gym, yoga studio and lounge, converted from unused mechanical space. The original top floor housed a Dissection Room for cadavers, and to comply with current NYC building codes, we flattened the formerly skylit hipped roof and designed a private roof deck with a kitchen and cabana seating overlooking the East River.

Polhemus Memorial - Amenities

We think it’s more than a “smart new apartment” building, but agree that to live in this stunning location is a nice reward for Andy’s hard work!