Landmarks okays tweaks to Domino Sugar Refinery redesign
Two Trees Management plans to turn the Domino Sugar Refinery into an office complex. Rendering by PAU via the Landmarks Preservation Commission
The architect who drew up the design for the conversion of waterfront Williamsburg’s iconic Domino Sugar Refinery — from 1880s industrial buildings to office complex — told the city Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday that developer Two Trees Management was planning to build a party venue inside the glass-walled top of the property.
Vishaan Chakrabarti, of architecture firm PAU, asked commissioners for permission to add a new set of fire-egress stairs to his renovation design for the sugar refinery — stairs that would be needed for a new public event space at the top of the building.
But a spokesperson for Two Trees Management threw cold water on the party, so to speak. “There are no plans for a public event space,” he told the Brooklyn Eagle.
“The space needed some adjustments at Landmarks so it could accommodate high occupancy if a future tenant needs it. We haven’t started leasing yet and no [space] users have been identified,” he said.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the addition of the staircase and other minor tweaks to the Domino Sugar Refinery’s redesign plans.
PAU’s redesign, which the commissioners approved in November 2017, entails the construction of a glass-walled building with a barrel-vaulted ceiling inside the brick façade of the American round-arch style refinery buildings.
The complex at 292-314 Kent Ave. is known to preservationists as the Havemeyers & Elder Filter, Pan & Finishing House. It’s the centerpiece of an 11-acre site that formerly belonged to Domino Sugar Corp., which Two Trees Management is now developing.
The Walentas family’s company is constructing more than 2,000 apartments there, including more than 700 affordable units. Six-acre Domino Park, which opened last year, is part of the development.
For now, folks who want to party at the Domino’s site will have to stick to sipping margaritas from Tacocina, a taco stand in the park.
Follow reporter Lore Croghan on Twitter.
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Elder Abuse. It is still baffling that this outrageous plan to gut a designated landmark was approved.