Domino Sugar Factory Proposed Addition Revealed
With developer CPC and architects Beyer Blinder Belle beginning to make the rounds to sell their proposal for modifications to the now-landmarked refinery building of the Domino Sugar Factory, it was only a matter of time before the closely-guarded renderings came to light. We crammed into the Community Board 1 headquarters last night with about…
With developer CPC and architects Beyer Blinder Belle beginning to make the rounds to sell their proposal for modifications to the now-landmarked refinery building of the Domino Sugar Factory, it was only a matter of time before the closely-guarded renderings came to light. We crammed into the Community Board 1 headquarters last night with about 15-20 other people to catch the powerpoint presentation and came away with a few dozen photos. The money shots are above—the five-story glass addition to the roof of the refinery. The big-picture plan for the building includes 30,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor, community use space on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors, and residential from the 5th floor up. (No pedestrian bridges though!) The residential portion will have a courtyard hollowed out in the middle of the building. Two other high-level stats for the project as a whole: 2,200 residential units and, get this, 1,550 underground parking spaces. The developers had originally hoped to have begun the ULURP process by February but it’s now looking more like April or May.
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]
Great, now the few artists that live in the area will be completely pushed out of the city for you yuppies! Forget creativity, we only need Bankers, Lawyers, Doctors etc. Who needs artists!
Thanks developers, for ruining the character of New York City.
It’s a piece of crap, and we are the idiots who will be paying for it.
Katan, Ratner and the rest of the vultures should all burn in hell together.
12:38 – You and many others, including the media, completely misunderstood Beyer Blinder Belle’s master plan proposal (meant to be massing models and not designs) for the WTC site. Do us a favor and educate yourself before misguiding others.
Oh. OK, Thanks for the clarification. I still think it’s too tall. Too Trump. It also looks like the bars on a cell phone in those T-Mobile? Commercials where everything looks like signal bars.
12:38 РVi̱oly did the master plan AND the towers. BBB is only responsible for the refinery.
1:39 – Yes, an approval process. That was what last night’s CB1 meeting was about. The official Landmarks hearing is next Tuesday.
I don’t understand. If the factory is designated a landmark, does that mean they can still build something on top of it? Or does it have to go through an approval process? I don’t like it. The towers are so tall and weird. Looks like Tudor City. Who in God’s name is gonna fill all those units??? Yes, 1238, BBB has done some nice historical work. Maybe if they just brought it down a notch or 2 or.. 13.
BLECH!
I don’t mind parking as long as it’s underground. Parking garages should always be underground. Nothing kills like a giant parking lot.
But it’s the towers that are disappointing. I think the glass box on top of the old factory building could be cool, but it is so incredibly foolish to take down the most defining element of the building – the Domino sign! That sign will be nothing but a draw for the project, and will help unite and brand the whole complex. It’s the single most recognizable part of the Domino Factory now.
Beyer Blinder and Belle is referred to as Blah Blah and Blah in the architectural world. They are the firm that sparked the call for an international design competition for Ground Zero – because their initial scheme was so banal and boring everyone said “what the hell???” when it was released. Then we had the open competition for the master plan, and Liebeskind won it.
Here we’ve got good master planning by Vinoly, but boring execution of giant new towers by a firm that specializes in staid restorations. I just don’t think they are the ones for the job, and I think these towers, while exciting in scale, will just be a jaw-dropping “so what” if built according to this design.
10:32 here – sorry, I was busy at work. As I said, the project overall is too big – the rezoning set a pretty high standard for density, go with that and be done. As for the brick and glass, I rather like it – reminds me of the glass top on the “Domino sign” building.
Regarding parking, the number includes parking for the retail component of the project. And they manage to keep it all below grade. But yeah, its a shit load of cars.
OK, back to work now.