Williamsburg Domino Sugar Factory to become 6-acre park

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Photo: DominoPhoto: Domino

In 2018, the site of former Domino Sugar Factory, located on the Brooklyn waterfront, will open as a public park as part of a major redevelopment project.

Just north of the Williamsburg Bridge, the patch of land the property sits on will be transformed by James Corner Field Operations, a landscape architecture firm.

Stretching across a quarter mile along the East River waterfront, six acres of parkland will house a new esplanade. Many elements from the old sugar refinery factory building, which was once the largest sugar refinery in the world and was built in the 1880s, will be incorporated into the design of the new landscape.

Twenty-one columns from the Raw Sugar Warehouse, over 30 industrial artifacts and approximately 585 feet of crane tracks were chosen by Field Operations to be preserved as part of the park. These also include the 36-foot-tall cylindrical syrup collection tanks that were once used in the refining process. Other aspects of the park’s plan include lawns and gardens with seating options, sports fields and a children’s play area.

“The design of Domino Park aims to create a space that will revitalize the beauty of New York City’s incredible waterfront and foster interest in the history of the site and the surrounding neighborhood,” said Lisa Switkin of James Corner Field Operations.

The management of the park falls to developer Two Trees; the company is also overhauling the historic factory building in order to create 380,000 square feet of office space designed by preservation experts Beyer Blinder Belle.

Measuring 11 acres in total, five new buildings across the site will house 2,800 rental apartments, of which 700 are designated as affordable. Including a 590-foot-tall tower and a building with a large hole at the center, the design comes from New York firm SHoP Architects.

Temporary recreation spaces have been created on site by Two Trees for the past four summers, and the park is due to open permanently in summer 2018. The first residential building on the site, at 325 Kent Ave., is set to open in June 2017.

Photo: DominoPhoto: Domino
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