Sky Shows Through Landmarked Domino Sugar Refinery on the Williamsburg Waterfront

The sky can now be glimpsed through the windows of the historic Domino Sugar Refinery.

A recent stroll through Domino Park showed that all but the lowest floors are open to the elements. The roof is gone, windows that were still bricked in or boarded up when bracing first went up in the spring have now been opened up, and interior walls and floors have been removed.

The deconstruction of the landmarked 1882 factory at 292 Kent Avenue is part of a plan to convert it into offices.

When complete, the iconic former refinery will be transformed with the insertion of a new glass and steel structure with a barrel-vaulted glass roof, effectively turning the historic building into a ruin with a modern building inside it. The Practice for Architecture and Urbanism’s controversial design for the adaptive reuse of the refinery was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in November 2017.

It’s just one element in the larger Domino Sugar Refinery redevelopment from developer Two Trees. The first new apartments in the development, a 16-story donut-shaped residential building at 325 Kent Avenue, opened in 2017. Domino Park, the publicly accessible green space stretching from South 5th Street to Grand Street, opened in June 2018.

A 42-story tower at 260 Kent Avenue is nearing completion, and two more towers are planned. Next door to the site, Two Trees is also preparing to develop a waterfront property previously owned by Con Ed.

[Photos by Susan De Vries]

Related Stories

• Bracing Goes Up at the Historic Domino Sugar Refinery
• Double-Towered Second Building of Domino Sugar Mega-Project in Williamsburg Quickly Rising
• Domino Sugar Refinery Redesign Approved by Landmarks Preservation Commission

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