The Lot Radio

A container dropped on the triangle

At dawn, a 20-foot shipping container landed on the triangular lot at Nassau Avenue, Banker Street, and North 15th Street, in Greenpoint. For years, that vacant lot—a former gas station, then home to trailers and rubble—served no purpose. In 2015, Belgian photographer François Vaxelaire saw the for-rent sign and, just a few meters away, decided that a radio station would go there. After fighting for permits with the city, the first test broadcast went out on February 7, 2016. Discwoman DJed that day and stuck the first sticker on the wall. The community didn't let the signal go out.

The radio station funded at the window

The Lot Radio is not a nightclub: it is a radio studio open to the public, split in two inside the same container. On one side, the booth with Pioneer CDJ-3000, CDJ-2000NXS2, Technics SL-1200 turntables, and Funktion-One monitors, facing the lot. On the other, the kiosk for coffee, beer, wine, and snacks that funds the project without sponsors. The DJs DJ for free. The venue is open every day from 10:00 to 00:00; the broadcast runs 24 hours. Summer sustains winter, because almost everything happens outdoors.

Main square of the underground

More than 200 local residents and a constant rotation of guests turn the triangle into a crossroads of house, techno, ambient, Jersey club, and whatever is happening in Brooklyn. Love Injection hosts the longest-running program. Lloyd Harris filled the mornings with Dinner With Lloyd. Antal stayed for five hours; Nina Kraviz and Four Tet passed through the booth. Whoever is DJing sees the audience through the window; whoever sits at the tables hears the radio live. Barbie Bertisch summed it up: it is the main square of the New York underground.

The church, the closure, and the triangle that continues

Without a budget for fiber, the internet came from the church across the street, Holy Family: an Ethernet cable stretched between the trees with the Franciscans Nicolas and Raphael. In October 2024, the Department of Health closed the kiosk when asking the venue to transition from a temporary to a permanent structure; the radio continued, the audience did not. With the Office of Nightlife, the lot reopened on July 11, 2025. LOT-EK plans to stack two containers by 2027. Club nights at Good Room or pop-ups in Times Square are not this venue: the physical location remains that Greenpoint triangle where electronic music is seen, heard, and shared.