Inside the LPC Meeting About Domino: New Plan OK'd

Brownstoner is on scene at the Landmarks Preservation Commission Meeting about redeveloping the Domino Sugar Refinery. Last we heard of the plan, in March, the LPC was still unhappy over the developers’ plans to add a glassy rooftop addition and not preserve the refinery’s iconic sign. And now:

10:41 a.m.: One of the developers, CPC Resources’ Michael Lapin, says preserving the refinery adds $40 mil to the project’s cost. The rooftop addition has been scaled back to 4 stories. The Domino sign will be moved to roof of the addition.

10:42: Groundbreaking is expected to occur next fall. (Fall 2009)

10:46: An architect on the project says “the sign will live.” The rooftop addition is being reduced from 5 stories to 4 in some parts and 3 in others. “Bulkheads have retreated,” he says. The addition is now “robust and industrial” as result of LPC’s comments last time.

10:50: Facing building from water, addition is 4 stories on left of smokestack and 3 on right; sign goes on top of 3-story addition on right, or southern, side. The developers are proposing a 20,000-square-foot reduction in floor area for the refinery’s addition. There’ll be “aysmmetrical massing” on the street side of the addition.

10:52: Last time around, the LPC said the storefronts planned for Kent Avenue were too minimal, so their presence has been beefed up.

11:01: The chutes have been redesigned, and the new plan creates 2-story open balconies made of steel and glass that protrude from the southern side of the building. Mr. B’s take: “Quite wild looking.”

11:05: CPC rep says none of the new towers that are planned have been made bigger to make up for the loss of square footage in the rooftop addition.

11:06: OK, it’s getting hairy. The LPC asks the Domino team why they didn’t listen to their suggestion that the rooftop addition be reduced by 2 stories. One of the architects says the reasons are twofold: 1) financial realities; and 2) a larger addition fits better. Mr. B: “Aw smack!”

11:10: A few politicians, including Councilmember David Yassky, submitted letters saying they support the overhauled submission.

11:12: They like it! LPC chairman Robert Tierney says he’s really digging the new submission. Tierney calls it a “brilliant” adaptive plan, says the addition is now “appropriate”, particularly since the Domino sign is being preserved. Calls the chutes “dramatic and evocative.” Another commissioner says the design will “rival the Tate”!

11:19: Three more commissioners say they’re very pleased with the design.

11:23: First dissenting opinion comes from Commissioner Margery Perlmutter, who says the proposal isn’t “different enough from the towers…the direction you’re going in is moving towards robust manufacturing but it’s still too polite, genteel.” And: The “storefronts are too shopping mallish, not robust enough.”

11:34: The Commissioners just approved the plan.

12:13: New renderings posted here.

LPC Still Not Buying Domino Plan [Brownstoner]
New Domino Plans Falter at LPC Hearing [Brownstoner]
More Domino Plans [Brownstoner]
Domino Sugar Factory Proposed Addition Revealed [Brownstoner]
BREAKING! LPC Approves Historic Designation for Domino [Brownstoner]
CPC Shows and Tells Its Plans for Domino [Brownstoner] GMAP
Plans for ‘New Domino’ Released by City Planning [Brownstoner]
Photo by PhotoJeff.