Domino Sugar Factory Redevelopment (Brooklyn)
Core idea
Mixed-use waterfront with adaptive reuse
Why it matters
Prominent industrial-to-mixed-use project
Description
A private-sector masterplan, begun in 2012 by developer Two Trees with SHoP Architects, for the former Domino Sugar refinery site on the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. The scheme replaced an earlier consented plan with a new arrangement of mixed-use towers with distinctive cut-out forms, the adaptive reuse of the landmarked refinery building, and a continuous public waterfront realised as Domino Park. It combines housing, offices and open space on a formerly closed industrial parcel facing Manhattan.
Significance
Domino is one of the most prominent American examples of industrial-to-mixed-use waterfront conversion, notable for pairing bold contemporary architecture with the retention of a landmark refinery. It has fed debates on gentrification and affordable housing in North Brooklyn, and Domino Park is frequently cited as a model of developer-delivered public space on post-industrial waterfronts.
What shaped it
- Landscape urbanism (Waldheim) (1997-2006)
- Containerised-logistics scale-up (1970s–1990s)
- Global financial crisis (2007–2009)
- The skyscraper (1885)
Sources
- https://www.archdaily.com/339600/domino-sugar-factory-master-plan-development-shop-architects
- https://www.dezeen.com/2018/06/08/domino-park-sugar-factory-james-corner-field-operations-willia