Williamsburg

Beat the heat wave at Domino Park on the Williamsburg waterfront

Eye on Real Estate

July 3, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
How sweet it is! The fountains at Domino Park are a fine place to cool off on steamy summer days. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan
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Heat wave on the waterfront!

The fountains at Domino Park are an instant antidote to it.

The just-opened recreation area has rows of inviting water jets for kids to run through when temps soar.

They’re a relief from hellish weather that’s expected to stick around through Friday.

Two Trees Management spent tens of millions of dollars to construct the six-acre Williamsburg park, which opened on June 10. And the developer plans to maintain it in perpetuity.

The park provides public access to a quarter-mile of East River shoreline where sugar-refinery workers had toiled since the 19th century. It is part of the Walentas family company’s Domino Sugar Refinery mega-development.     

Recently constructed 325 Kent Ave. provides a backdrop for this peaceful scene in Domino Park.

Park visitors can catch a breath of fresh air while lounging on lawns along the river’s edge, strolling along a waterfront esplanade or climbing onto an elevated Artifact Walk.

You can play volleyball or bocce, though you might want to wait until temps drop a bit.

There’s a dog run, which is great for neighborhood pooches.

If all else fails in terms of cooling down, you can knock back a few margaritas to distract yourself from the heat. They’re served at Shake Shack creator Danny Meyer’s taco stand, Tacocina, which is located in the middle of the park.

The first time we visited Domino Park was during a reporters’ tour offered on a cold April day, when workers were completing its construction.

The park was eye-catching even then, with its cluster of 36-foot-high syrup tanks, a pair of 80-foot-tall cranes and other fascinating stuff salvaged from the old sugar factory.

 These gigantic bits of machinery, which are called screw conveyors, look like they're growing in a garden at Domino Park.

Green space for Two Trees Management’s mega-development

But it’s even better to see the finished park, filled with visitors.

Plus, when we stopped by recently, it was late in the day. The light was especially beautiful.

The park is an excellent place to watch the sun set, by the way.

It was great to walk down River Street — which Two Trees Management extended through Domino Park to make this public space really be publicly accessible.   

James Corner Field Operations designed Domino Park, which is located thisclose to the Williamsburg Bridge and extends from South 5th Street to Grand Street.

The landscape architecture firm is best known for its work on the High Line in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea.

Domino Park provides green space for Two Trees Management’s 11-acre development.

The firm is building out the project on a site that had sat idle since the sugar-production facility there closed in 2004.  

Two Trees Management’s mega-development will have about 2,300 apartments, more than 700 of which will be affordable units.

The first residential building to be completed is 16-story 325 Kent Ave. It has a hole in its middle like a rectangular donut. Its copper and zinc facade gleams at sunset. SHoP Architects designed it.

Behind the Grand Street end of Domino Park, construction is underway on a 42-story mixed-use residential and office building whose address is 260 Kent Ave. COOKFOX Architects designed it.

And Two Trees Management is converting the landmarked Havemeyers & Elder Filter, Pan & Finishing House at 292-314 Kent Ave. into an office building with retail space.

It will have a barrel-vaulted glass roof. Architecture firm PAU did the makeover design.

 

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