The Landmarks Preservation Commission yesterday approved by a vote of 7 to 1 a certificate of appropriateness for the revised design for the redevelopment of the Domino Sugar refinery building in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
The redesign by Beyer Blinder Belle takes the 40-foot-high, "Domino Sugar" sign off a nearby low-rise building at the site and places it atop the former factory building just to the south of its very tall, centrally-placed chimney. The revised design also reduces from five to a split level three and four stories the number of new glass-clad floors it plans to add to the roof of the landmark factory building.
The factory building is in the center of an 11.2-acre, waterfront site, just to the north of the Williamsburg Bridge across the East River.
The remainder of the site will be developed according to a master plan designed by Rafael Vinoly and will consist of several towers, some about 40 stories high, that will have high red bases and light-colored tops.
The entire project, which is smaller than but comparable to a certain degree to the grandiose plans for the rail yards of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Midtown Manhattan near the Hudson River, especially with regard to affordable housing, is being developed by Refinery LLC, of which CPC Resources Inc. (CPCR), is managing partner.
The design of the non-refinery buildings planned for the site appears to be considerably more attractive and unified and handsome than the developments on Roosevelt Island.
CPC Resources, Inc. is the for-profit development subsidiary of the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), of which Michael Lappin is president. The Katan Group, which is headed by Isaac Katan, a Brooklyn developer, is a partner with CPCR in Refinery LLC., which bought the site for about $56 million.
The entire project will contain about 2,200 apartments of which 30 percent will be affordable and dispersed throughout the site, and about 120,000 square feet of new retail and commercial and 100,000 of community facility space. It will also have about 4 acres of publicly accessible open space and five street connections to the waterfront, "allowing visual and physical access for the first time in over a century."
Mr. Lappin said that decisions about whether the non-"affordable" apartments will be rental or condos, or a mix have not yet been made for the project, which requires various other public approvals.
The Domino sign would have higher visibility, literally, than the famous Pepsi-Cola sign further up the river on the Long Island City waterfront.
Of the 660 "affordable" apartments in the project, 100 will be rental units for families earning 30 percent of the area median income, or a family of 4 earning $23,040; 310 will be rental units for families earning 60 percent of the area median income, or a family of four earning $46,080; 150 homeownership units for families earning 130 percent of the area median income, or a family of four earning $99,840; and 100 "senior rentals" for individuals earning up to 50 percent of the area median income, or $26,880.
The project is called The New Domino.
The factory building will have two cantilevered and angled steel balconies on its south side to evoke the attachment points of two large chutes that connected the refinery with the plant's bin structure. The plant closed in 2004.
The redesign by Beyer Blinder Belle takes the 40-foot-high, "Domino Sugar" sign off a nearby low-rise building at the site and places it atop the former factory building just to the south of its very tall, centrally-placed chimney. The revised design also reduces from five to a split level three and four stories the number of new glass-clad floors it plans to add to the roof of the landmark factory building.
The factory building is in the center of an 11.2-acre, waterfront site, just to the north of the Williamsburg Bridge across the East River.
The remainder of the site will be developed according to a master plan designed by Rafael Vinoly and will consist of several towers, some about 40 stories high, that will have high red bases and light-colored tops.
The entire project, which is smaller than but comparable to a certain degree to the grandiose plans for the rail yards of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Midtown Manhattan near the Hudson River, especially with regard to affordable housing, is being developed by Refinery LLC, of which CPC Resources Inc. (CPCR), is managing partner.
The design of the non-refinery buildings planned for the site appears to be considerably more attractive and unified and handsome than the developments on Roosevelt Island.
CPC Resources, Inc. is the for-profit development subsidiary of the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), of which Michael Lappin is president. The Katan Group, which is headed by Isaac Katan, a Brooklyn developer, is a partner with CPCR in Refinery LLC., which bought the site for about $56 million.
The entire project will contain about 2,200 apartments of which 30 percent will be affordable and dispersed throughout the site, and about 120,000 square feet of new retail and commercial and 100,000 of community facility space. It will also have about 4 acres of publicly accessible open space and five street connections to the waterfront, "allowing visual and physical access for the first time in over a century."
Mr. Lappin said that decisions about whether the non-"affordable" apartments will be rental or condos, or a mix have not yet been made for the project, which requires various other public approvals.
The Domino sign would have higher visibility, literally, than the famous Pepsi-Cola sign further up the river on the Long Island City waterfront.
Of the 660 "affordable" apartments in the project, 100 will be rental units for families earning 30 percent of the area median income, or a family of 4 earning $23,040; 310 will be rental units for families earning 60 percent of the area median income, or a family of four earning $46,080; 150 homeownership units for families earning 130 percent of the area median income, or a family of four earning $99,840; and 100 "senior rentals" for individuals earning up to 50 percent of the area median income, or $26,880.
The project is called The New Domino.
The factory building will have two cantilevered and angled steel balconies on its south side to evoke the attachment points of two large chutes that connected the refinery with the plant's bin structure. The plant closed in 2004.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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