It was built in the 1910s, from a design by the firm of then-state architect Lewis Pilcher to house the New York National Guard's Eighth Coast Defense Command (258th Field Artillery Regiment after November 1921), a regiment-sized unit which relocated from Manhattan in 1917.

Above Jerome Avenue is the Kingsbridge Road station on the New York City Subway's 4 train, from which the armory is visible.

[5] The building is a nine-story red brick edifice with a curved, sloping metal roof, with corrugated fiberglass panels in the field at either end.

[1] Between them is the main entrance, a round arch with heavy iron gates and paneled double doors with stone steps and walls.

Two cellar levels, which used to house military vehicles, also provide space for storage, lecture halls, and fitness rooms, that included a basketball court and a 400-foot (120 m) shooting range.

[3] In the office wing, the entry hall has square brick piers supporting the segmental arches that frame the groin vaults.

The commander's office, upstairs, is done in the Colonial Revival style, with engaged columns, fielded panel walls and an Adamesque fireplace mantel.

[1] Architect Lewis Pilcher's design was an engineering feat, probably inspired by the large trainsheds of contemporary railroad stations.

The medieval architecture of the office wing echoed social concerns of the 1880s, when the National Guard was frequently called out to suppress civil unrest such as strikes.

[7] By the early 1910s, the Guard was more integrated with the Army, and their units became more focused on national defense purposes, training and equipping for the battlefield instead of the streets.

The design of the drill shed reflects this changing function, its steel and glass making the whole a stylistic hybrid similar to the Brooklyn Bridge and the 1901 Squadron C Armory in Brooklyn, also designed by Pilcher's firm, the first armory in which the steel drill hall is a prominent element when seen from the outside.

"It points toward a moment when historical ornament will be stripped away," writes David Bady of Lehman College, "leaving engineering to be admired as architecture.

[1] In 1911 the New York State Legislature authorized the construction of a new armory using what had already been excavated as the planned eastern basin for Jerome Park Reservoir.

Some military artifacts were unearthed, probably from the nearby sites of Revolutionary War forts Independence and Number Five, but no formal archeological survey was done.

[8] After the war the city offered it to the United Nations General Assembly as a temporary meeting place until the main UN building was finished.

Proposals ranged from the school plan to one from City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell to develop it into an amateur athletic center.

[9] The winning bidder, The Related Companies, pledged to invest $310 million in redeveloping the armory into a shopping mall complex.

The company already had negotiated a CBA for its Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market, but never reached any agreement with KARA for the armory, saying its wage demands would have made it impossible to attract tenants.

[12] Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., made the defeat of Related's plan the starting point of a campaign to get living-wage legislation enacted citywide for taxpayer-subsidized projects.

In fall of 2010, Diaz's office retained graduate students and faculty in the Capstone Program at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service to develop a plan.

[15] Diaz later skipped a meeting with Bloomberg's deputies as a protest against the mayor's plan to use the armory as one of several new homeless shelters.

A New York Supreme Court ruling gave the NYCEDC full ownership of the armory after KNIC failed for eight years to secure proper funding for the space's development.

[29][30][31] Amid concerns from local business owners who feared being evicted after the armory was redeveloped,[32] the city began soliciting proposals from investors.

[33] The bids included a proposal by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition to construct spaces for manufacturing, food service, and live performances.