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  #61  
Old Posted Mar 5, 2013, 9:58 PM
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I think a lot of it has to do with how these towers meet the street. I don't mind curves, there are a couple in Battery Park City that stand out. Something curved or angular
wouldn't hurt, but I don't think its necessary at all to get a good design. I think that SHoP is getting so much work around town, especially on the waterfront including
South Street Seaport and the planned shopping center at the Staten Island Wheel, because they have a feel for it. They have a signature style that I think mixes classic
New York with something new. I can't wait until we get into the review process.



http://nymag.com/arts/architecture/f...msburg-2013-3/


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  #62  
Old Posted Mar 5, 2013, 10:03 PM
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I'm liking the designs, on paper at least. I like that they're building something different and eye catching, but what worries me is that designs like this don't always turn out so good in real life. Hopefully I'm wrong.
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  #63  
Old Posted Mar 5, 2013, 10:19 PM
babybackribs2314 babybackribs2314 is offline
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SHOP is getting work because they can deliver 'starchitecture' at budget costs--many of their projects draw on public financing. Speaks to the city's priorities, and how the rich overlords are catering to the vast underclasses by providing them with exemplary housing while actual middle class New Yorkers suffer under increasingly exorbitant costs... including the tax burden that provides housing for those 'less fortunate' who happen to get housing that's basically free as well as PARKING.
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  #64  
Old Posted Mar 5, 2013, 10:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Astorian View Post
I like that they're building something different and eye catching, but what worries me is that designs like this don't always turn out so good in real life. Hopefully I'm wrong.
The thing about these designs is that they are pretty much straightforward, though they are stacked and fit with unusual elements. Strip away all of that, and they are very normal looking buildings. I still want better renderings, for example from the river, the neighborhood, etc.


http://brooklynpaper.com/stories/36/..._03_08_bk.html

Sweet and sour on Domino: New plan draws mixed reaction

By Danielle Furfaro
March 5, 2013

Quote:
Two Trees Management Co.’s distinctive new renderings for the conversion of the Williamsburg site drew cheers from backers who say the artsy architecture will create a vibrant and bustling waterfront community, and harsh words from critics who claim the strangely shaped structures are just the next step in the neighborhood’s march to gentrification.

Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D–Williamburg) and William Harvey, creator of the nascent North Brooklyn Creative Economy Zone — who are both on a list of approved sources distributed by Two Trees — each called this reporter and gave similarly-worded praise for the project.

“It’s inventive and so much better than the original Domino plan, which was not innovative at all,” said Lentol. “It was very paint-by-the-numbers.

“It’s a world-class plan that incorporates significant amount of space for the creative economy that will benefit North Brooklyn,” said Harvey. “The [Community Preservation Corporation Resources] was unimaginative and design-by-numbers.”

Both said the billion-dollar plan — which calls for four rental towers, a waterfront park, and a public square around the landmarked Domino refinery building — would help squelch rising rents in Williamsburg.

“This is going to be about the law of supply and demand,” said Lentol. “There is a need for residential housing.”

“It’s about supply and demand,” said Harvey. “If we have a bigger supply, it should mitigate prices.”

But project opponents said the SHoP Architects’ proposal for Dubai-style high-rises, decked out with prominent holes in the center of the buildings, is a sign that Williamsburg’s transition from bohemian to upscale is nearly complete.

“It is now easier than ever for the financiers who will soon make up the bulk of the residents of Williamsburg’s waterfront to land their hovercrafts inside of their be-holed condominium tower,” quipped Gawker scribe Hamilton Nolan.

Neighborhood landlord Stephanie Eisenberg, a vocal opponent of the original plan, said she has just as much apprehension about the Two Trees proposal, which calls for 2,284 apartments, 660 of them charging below-market-rate rents.

“It’s a socio-economically segregated community,” said Eisenberg, who once suggested turning the Domino refinery into a museum. “It’s dead. It’s boring.”

Councilman Steve Levin (D–Williamsburg) — a long-time foe of the original Domino plan who gave the now-scrapped proposal his blessing after convincing builders to shave six stories from its tallest towers — said he finds the new design “ambitious and interesting” and is happy about increased office and green space, but is reserving judgement for now. “It’s a very big project and there’s plenty to work through,” said Levin.
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  #65  
Old Posted Mar 5, 2013, 11:01 PM
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Originally Posted by babybackribs2314 View Post
SHOP is getting work because they can deliver 'starchitecture' at budget costs--many of their projects draw on public financing.
This is the most interesting aspect of SHoP's ubiquity these days. There's so much starchitecture hype and positive press for their work, even though it is, and frankly looks, budget minded. Their design and corporate MO seems to be to grab as much attention as possible for as low a price as possible. I'm not sure that makes good architecture or good architects.
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  #66  
Old Posted Mar 6, 2013, 5:11 AM
babybackribs2314 babybackribs2314 is offline
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Originally Posted by vandelay View Post
This is the most interesting aspect of SHoP's ubiquity these days. There's so much starchitecture hype and positive press for their work, even though it is, and frankly looks, budget minded. Their design and corporate MO seems to be to grab as much attention as possible for as low a price as possible. I'm not sure that makes good architecture or good architects.
I strongly agree. They are marring multiple parts of the NYC skyline with large-scale projects that will be falling apart in another few decades (similar to the suburban McMansions--pretty for a while but impossible to maintain because despite the design, they are not luxury).

In Brooklyn alone they have this project and the Atlantic Yards. Taken together, these will be major additions to the BK skyline.
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  #67  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2013, 7:15 PM
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http://observer.com/2013/03/schizo-s...-out-of-whack/

Schizo Skyline: Warring Williamsburg Mandates Leave Waterfront Out of Whack









By Stephen Jacob Smith
March 8, 2013

Quote:
As Vishaan Chakrabarti, a principal at SHoP Architects, was unveiling the Southside Williamsburg master plan they designed for Two Trees, he evoked the image of Manhattan’s skyline. “Just like in the dead center of New York,” he told the assembled group of reporters, “we have this parabolic moment—there’s this moment of exuberance that happens” as the towers rise on the waterfront, culminating in the towers at the Domino site. The tallest will reach 598 feet, or about 60 stories, making it taller than any other building in the borough.

“And that,” he continued, “that’s the stuff of postcards all around the world.”

But despite the best efforts of SHoP and Two Trees, the plan does not succeed in aping the natural parabolic shape of an organic thicket of towers found in midtown, downtown or even downtown Brooklyn. Nor could it—Williamsburg’s new planning regime, instituted in the 2005 rezoning and reinforced in 2009, makes sure of that it.

The towers form a narrow stockade on the shores of northern Brooklyn, a sort of Potemkin village of development to be admired from Manhattan. But behind them—nothing. A block or two away from the old Domino refinery, the skyline plummets to near zero—most sites across the street are zoned exclusively for industrial use, and cannot be developed beyond one and two stories. There is no gradual downward gradient. “There’s no way to hide that,” admitted Mr. Chakrabarti of the disparity in heights.

It’s not hard to see how it ended up this way. The rezonings took the path of least resistance between the pro-development wishes of the Bloomberg administration on the one hand, and the anti-growth attitudes of vast inland neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint on the other.

Manufacturing districts, where there weren’t existing residents to bother, were upzoned. Development in established residential neighborhoods, on the other hand, was restricted.

The result is an awkward hybrid that pleases nobody. There isn’t enough supply allowed to meet demand and temper the wave of gentrification shooting over northern Brooklyn, but what supply is allowed comes in the form of towers so out of place that they spark resentment throughout the community.

With high-rises on the waterfront and row homes farther inland, the planning lacks provision for mid-rise buildings. Six stories or more, the traditional New York mid-rise smooths out the transitions between towers and townhouses, marrying the density needed to meet demand with a human scale that doesn’t cast shadows for blocks.
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  #68  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2013, 7:44 PM
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http://www.vanityfair.com/online/dai...front-redesign

A Skyline for Williamsburg? The Brooklyn Waterfront Gets a Radical—and Terrific—Re-Design





ByPaul Goldberger
March 12 2013

Quote:
Vishaan Chakrabarti, the architect and planner who is a partner in the firm SHoP, was quoted not long ago as saying that “contextualism is an opiate for the masses.” It was not what you would call a politically correct statement in this age of hyper-sensitivity to neighborhoods, landmarks, historic districts, and small scale, when everybody wants each new building to “fit in,” whatever that means, and buildings that look different from what has been built before are an automatic no-no to many community groups.

But what Chakrabarti may have lacked in political correctness he made up in perceptiveness. Once, the notion that a new building might take its cues from its surroundings didn’t count for enough in New York. Now, it seems to count for too much. We are hesitant to accept the fact that great cities come from breaking rules as well as from following them, from architecture that surprises and excites as much as from architecture that behaves itself. The challenge is keeping a balance. Too much adherence to narrow rules and guidelines creates a dull city; too little yields chaos.

This is a roundabout way of saying that SHoP’s new plan for the section of the Brooklyn waterfront around the old Domino sugar refinery in Williamsburg is one of the most exciting developments New York has seen in a long time. No, this mix of residential and commercial space is not “contextual,” if you think the context is the few gentrified blocks of Williamsburg adjacent to this 11-acre site and the small-scale buildings a little farther to the east. The SHoP plan, a collaboration with the landscape-architecture firm Field Operations, envisions very big buildings—one tower is 598 feet tall; another, the project’s centerpiece, consists of two vertical slabs sitting on top of a horizontal slab and topped by another horizontal slab, so that the whole thing looks like a gargantuan open rectangle or, if you will, a 40-story doughnut. (The building, which also calls to mind a tamer, straightened-out version of Rem Koolhaas’s CCTV tower in Beijing, would be positioned with the doughnut hole open to the east, so the rising sun would be visible through it.) Another building would consist of a slab resembling an upside down “L,” resting atop a medium-high slab that would contain an office building.

These are big buildings, unusually shaped. Along with the new Mercedes House apartment building by Enrique Norton and the planned apartment project by Bjarke Ingels, both near the riverfront in Manhattan’s West 50s, the Domino plan suggests that developers in New York just might, at long last, be starting to shake themselves free of the mediocre and confining design models they have been using forever, and to create housing that is genuinely exciting for everyone to look at, even if they have no intention of living there. That fact alone makes this proposal important.

It’s a given that there will be large-scale development on the city’s waterfronts—that is happening no matter who is the mayor, no matter who is in charge of city planning, and no matter who makes up community boards. The question is how good it will be, and how much it will contribute to the city as a whole. To come back around again to context, it’s clear that SHoP has considered the context here to be not just the surrounding blocks, but the city as a whole. This striking project, full of fresh thinking and creative imagination, is designed to be part and parcel of the sweep of the waterfront on both sides of the river, and the Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines beyond. That may not please some of the neighbors, but it’s good for everyone else.
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  #69  
Old Posted Mar 13, 2013, 8:16 PM
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http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/b...ntent=Brooklyn

Developer: New Domino project could weather another Sandy

By RICH CALDER
March 13, 2013

Quote:
Even a future Hurricane Sandy can’t sour plans to bring Brooklyn’s biggest waterfront project to the former Domino Sugar plant in Williamsburg. Two Tree Management Co. says it plans to build four new apartment and office towers for the $1.5 billion project more than 150 feet back from the riverfront.

Under an earlier design by developer CPC Resources -- which pulled out of the 11-acre project last year because of money troubles – apartment towers would’ve been built 50 feet from the East River despite being in a storm-unfriendly “Zone A” evacuation area.

Chakrabarti said the redesign raises front-door entrances up another three feet – above new flood plains recently set by the feds following Sandy – by adding some stairs and moving the project more uphill.

Cul-de-sacs once planned between buildings have been removed – not only to improve neighborhood waterfront access, but also to avoid potential flooding from pooling water runoff during storms. The sloping streets would instead allow storm water to flow into the river.

The project’s open space has been expanded by 60 percent to 5.3 acres. Chakrabarti said the new parkland will use little pavement and “act as a sponge” for heavy rains.

Other storm-friendly new features include moving the heating, ventilation and power systems out of the basement. They will be placed at least two-stories above ground and out of danger from Mother Nature.

Domino’s landmarked refinery building – which will be converted into office space for the development – is already located out of the flood plain.
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  #70  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2013, 12:59 PM
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If anyone would like to go and get some info...it's tonight.


http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/tomo...factory-plans/

Community Forum About Those Wacky Domino Sugar Factory Plans

Quote:
NAG would like to invite you to a community meeting about the proposed new development at the Domino Sugar Factory. Jed Walentas and the Two Trees team will be walking us through their whole plan, providing you an opportunity to learn about the proposal and get answers to your questions.

Domino Community Forum w/ Two Trees
Thurs March 14th
The Woods – 48 S4th
6-8pm


We are very interested in your input and encourage your attendance at this meeting. Hopefully, you can join us

6-630: Meet, greet, grab a drink, check out the model, say hi to your neighbors. Grab a spot for the powerpoint.
630-715: Domino presentation.
715-8pm: Questions & Discussion
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  #71  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2013, 10:05 AM
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Report on the meeting...


http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories..._03_22_bk.html

Domino builder: If you don’t like the new plan, there’s always the old one





By Danielle Furfaro
March 15, 2013

Quote:
Domino Sugar factory owner Jed Walentas has a backup plan if neighbors don’t like his lofty new vision for the massive waterfront property: go back to the site’s much-maligned previous development blueprint.

Walentas, whose company Two Trees Management Co. bought the shuttered sugar refinery last year, told neighbors he hopes to get the greenlight for his proposal to build skyscraping edifices with eye-catching cutouts in the middle, but if that falls through he will revive the city-approved plan by the past owner Community Preservation Corporation Resources, which call for shorter more monolithic towers.

“We spent $185 million to purchase this site, and we’re going to get a return on our investment,” Walentas said on Thursday in his first meeting with Williamsburgers to discuss the future of Domino.

Neighbors, including many activists who battled the previous Domino development plan, greeted the Two Trees proposal with snark, derision, and anger, criticizing the project for its potential impact on transit, its light-blocking scale, and what they described as Walentas’s “my way or the highway” attitude.

“Maybe you think we are dumb, but we are not DUMBO,” community stalwart Isaac Abraham shouted at the builder, referring to the neighborhood that Walentas and his father David meticulously developed over the past two decades.

Walentas promised his proposal — which calls for taller, thinner, more distinctive buildings with slightly fewer apartments and substantially more office space and open space — is sensitive to the neighborhood and its values.

“We see tons of energy and talent and creative people who looking to start businesses or do things in their community,” said Walentas, who vowed to turn away big box stores and chain retailers in favor of “mom and pop” merchants, and insisted he chose a less lucrative plan by boosting commercial space and reducing residential units.

But critics say the development is all about the money. “He comes across like Jesse Eisenberg with his tennis shoes and his hoodie, but he’s a total capitalist,” said activist Susan Pellegrino.

Other neighbors at the meeting, which was organized by critics of the previous Domino plan from Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, fear the giant buildings — one of which could become the tallest in the borough — will obstruct light and eventually house so many people that the community’s overburdened trains will become even more jam-packed.

Reminds me of the old saying.

"You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time. But you can't please all of the people all of the time."

They should forget about these meetings with the "community", and focus on City approvals. The naysayers won't be happy, no matter what is built.
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  #72  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2013, 3:08 PM
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They should forget about these meetings with the "community", and focus on City approvals. The naysayers won't be happy, no matter what is built.
They need to be able to point out that they tried to work with the "community" on the changes to have a chance with the city. These people seem to mistakenly think the possibility of the old plan being built if they obstruct the new one is just a threat and not a promise.
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  #73  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2013, 3:18 PM
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Wow I am loving this project. I have always liked this sugar plant and now hopefully it will be restored. This project kind of reminds me of a larger version of the DUMBO project.
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  #74  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2013, 7:35 PM
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Originally Posted by k1052 View Post
These people seem to mistakenly think the possibility of the old plan being built if they obstruct the new one is just a threat and not a promise.
They probably think they can get some type of concession from the developers, but the new proposal is already an improvement over anything they could possibly get - there will be more open space, no "big box" department stores, and the riverfront won't be walled off by a wall of apartment buildings. Some people don't recognize when they have an unexpected gift (which this is) and just resort to knee-jerk NIMBYism because that is all they know - fight the developer no matter what. They figure if the developer wants it, it must be bad for them.




http://www.nydailynews.com/life-styl...sEnabled=false

Domino delivers! Master plan at former sugar refinery brings park land
and hopefully high-tech jobs to Brooklyn

Project would add outdoor space and convert sugar factory into commercial building






By Jason Sheftell
March 15, 2013


Quote:
A world-class arena, a hot hoops team, the most vibrant culinary scene in the country, and rising real estate prices — Brooklyn does not want for much.

What it does lack, though, sorely, are companies who think it’s as hip as twentysomethings do and more parks. It would be the fourth-most populous city in the country, but Brooklyn has less parkland per acre than any urban area in the United States. Worse, no big company thinks Brooklyn’s cool enough to lay down serious roots, or money. Yes, the artisan loves the borough, but Queens has a much higher corporate profile. Citibank built a tower in Long Island City. Rolex and JetBlue followed.

Brooklyn talks about becoming a tech hub, but Google lives in Chelsea, and Microsoft is on Sixth Ave. With Starwood, RBS, UBS and the soon-to-relocate website Kayak, Stamford, Conn., has more big companies. That could change soon at the former Domino Sugar factory. Developer Two Trees Management Co. asked lower Manhattan-based architect SHoP to rethink an inherited master plan for Domino, a site they purchased last fall for $185 million. The new plan added outdoor space and will use the historic sugar refinery as a commercial building totaling almost 4,000 jobs.

Leasing the entire property to one large corporate entity might give the borough a boost. Yahoo would look great in purple neon reflecting off the East River. The move to give the mostly housing and retail development over 600,000 square feet of commercial space was a priority for Two Trees, a proponent of emerging companies. “We have all these young people in Brooklyn, but they go to work in Manhattan,” said Jed Walentas, Two Trees principal, whose family developed 3 million square feet of retail, residential and commercial space in DUMBO. “There is something not right about that.”

Brooklyn brass agree. “My biggest fear for Brooklyn in five to 10 years is that we have no office space,” said Carlo A. Scisurra, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “Jed is a pioneer. We need more big developers to build office space. Otherwise, no companies will come.”

Walentas also wanted more public space. James Corner Field Operations, who helped design the High Line, will use the drama of the Williamsburg Bridge and waterfront to create a destination where park users can relax and have privacy. The mile-long park is just 100 feet deep. The water’s edge will have one clean, powerful line for pedestrians,” said Lisa ­Switkin, an associate partner with Corner. “The program has functional spaces that will serve as outside rooms. The idea is to create places to linger in.”

This is a huge development encompassing 11 acres, five buildings and 2,284 homes, 660 of which will be for lower to middle income. There will be retail, but no big box, according to Walentas. A 598-foot tower, for which Two Trees has to receive a zoning variance, will spike the development’s southern edge. A public school will be built. In the master plan change most discussed, a new street will connect to the city grid.

“New York needs big developments to stay competitive with cities like Shanghai,” said Vishaan Chakrabarti, a partner at SHoP who worked under Amanda Burden at the NYC Department of City Planning. “We wanted to create a skyline moment but different from Manhattan. That’s why we have holes in the buildings. A strong connection between inland Brooklyn, the complex and the water would open everything up for the neighborhood.”

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Last edited by NYguy; Mar 15, 2013 at 8:29 PM.
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  #75  
Old Posted Mar 21, 2013, 9:44 PM
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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/130329972

Part of Domino site to get sweet new tenants
The developer will open an urban farm, bicycle course, community reading center and more at the 1.3-acre Williamsburg plot where it hopes someday build a big new tower.


By Matt Chaban
March 21, 2013

Quote:
Construction on Two Tree Management's 3-million-square-foot residential/office/retail project at the Domino sugar refinery site in Williamsburg is still a few years off but on Thursday the developer announced some placeholders. It will be bring an urban farm, a bicycle course, a community reading center and a variety of local venders to a 55,000-square-foot plot on Kent Avenue, one of the five parcels where the company plans to build new towers some day.

"Two Trees is committed to Williamsburg for the long haul, and we want to be able to give back to the community as we prepare to build at the Domino sugar site," Jed Walentas, principal at Two Trees Management, said in a release. "The operators we've selected will be welcoming residents of all ages to this new public open space for biking, reading, relaxing, yoga classes and more."

How very Brooklyn. The developer decided in January that it would bring temporary uses to a corner of its 11-acre site, so that it can serve as a community amenity rather than the liability it would have been if it remained an empty lot.

Two Trees will open its site in May, on Kent Avenue between South Third and South Fourth streets, with operations at least through the fall—around the time Two Trees hopes to get approval from the City Council for its project. Whether or not it will return the following spring, or if there will be construction crews in its place, is up to the developer.
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  #76  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2013, 3:16 AM
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i love these projects popping up along the east river
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  #77  
Old Posted Apr 23, 2013, 10:11 PM
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http://www.nag-brooklyn.org/2013/04/...g-board-staff/

Domino — Thoughts from the NAG Board & Staff…





April 19, 2013


Quote:
Just a few short weeks ago, we hosted a community forum on the new proposed development plan for the Domino Sugar Factory property by the current owners, Two Trees. We have been engaged in a lot of thought, a lot of discourse, and a lot of good conversations with forces both in favor and against the new plan. A lot of people have been asking our opinion and while it is too early to put out an official statement since we tend to do that during the hearings that are a part of the official ULURP process, we would like to share our thoughts on the plan so far.

NAG calls on the City to work with Two Trees and bring the new new Domino plan forward for formal public review. We believe that the Two Trees proposal is an improvement on the existing approval in many ways, and we encourage Two Trees to continue to work with the community to make further improvements. The City should pursue these changes, working with the developer and the Williamsburg community to ensure that all promises to the community are enforceable and transferable to any future owners.

In 2010, NAG opposed the Domino rezoning because the proposed density was an unsustainable burden on our community and because the developer’s promises were not backed by sufficient guarantees. The density proposed in 2010 was higher than that approved for the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront Rezoning and could cause a series of unmitigated community impacts, including a reduction in per capita open space, year-round shadow impacts on our local park, excessive waivers to provide additional parking, large-footprint neighborhood-unfriendly retail, and added burdens to our already over-taxed public transit system. Despite our opposition, the rezoning was approved. The primary community benefit, 660 units of affordable housing, was not guaranteed – a fact that became sadly relevant when the previous developer ran into financial trouble and was forced to sell the property.

Now, a new developer – Two Trees Management – has acquired the property and proposes to change the zoning. The choice presented to the community is the previous flawed zoning with its unenforceable promises, or a new plan that, in our view, addresses some of the flaws of the previous zoning. The Two Trees plan does not correct the central flaw of the density of the 2010 approval, and it does add considerable height to the development as a trade-off for improvements in other areas. However, based on what we have heard to date, these trade-offs could lead to a better plan for the community.

In our view, the Two Trees proposal appears to make significant improvements over the existing zoning in the following areas:

Commercial use: Two Trees proposes eliminating 116 residential units from the approved zoning, in favor of creating more than 530,000 additional square feet of commercial space. This includes using the landmarked refinery building entirely for commercial (and possibly community facility) purposes. This proposal is consistent with Community Board 1’s position on the 2005 rezoning; at that time, they envisioned North Brooklyn as a vibrant, mixed-use community.

Retail: The new construction on Kent Avenue built since the 2005 rezoning has generally provided large retail footprints, attracting corporate, big-box retail outlets to the neighborhood. NAG’s and CB1’s recommendations in 2005 included the promotion of locally owned small businesses, as job creators, entrepreneurial opportunities, and a strategy for keeping money in the local economy. Two Trees has verbally expressed its support for small retail footprints to encourage local businesses.

Open Space: One of the main pieces of feedback generated in the community meetings that NAG hosted about the Domino redevelopment was that open space is a priority for North Brooklyn, especially for the Southside, which is the most underserved portion of an underserved community when it comes to public green space. The trade-off of taller buildings allows for an interesting open space plan that not only provides more than two additional acres of open space to the neighborhood, but also creates an improved per capita open space ratio as opposed to that proposed by CPCR. Reintroducing the street grid to the site will make this open space feel like a true community benefit, rather than just a large backyard for the development’s tenants. In addition, the planned reconfiguration of the buildings on the site creates a less direct shadow impact on Grand Ferry Park


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  #78  
Old Posted May 6, 2013, 2:15 AM
TouchTheSky13 TouchTheSky13 is offline
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http://nymag.com/arts/architecture/f...msburg-2013-3/

This design is truly awful. What a digusting, schizophrenic hodgepodge of incoherent crap architecture. Way too much going on here. The old design, albeit not great, was much better than this one IMO. They could have tweeked the old plan a bit so it didn't look so uniform. But this, Dear God...
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Old Posted May 6, 2013, 2:45 AM
Crawford Crawford is offline
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Originally Posted by TouchTheSky13 View Post
This design is truly awful. What a digusting, schizophrenic hodgepodge of incoherent crap architecture.
I think it looks great. Much better than regular boring glass box or "contextual" ye olde style.

I'm a big fan of the architects, though, so quite biased. I love their existing projects, especially Barclays Center, the East River Promenade, and some of their residential buildings. They have a great sense of animating the street. They design truly urban and pedestrian-oriented landscapes.
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Old Posted May 6, 2013, 12:17 PM
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^ It's the best thing to happen on the east river waterfront so far, as far as designs go. Love it or hate it, people are talking about it. And in that case, it's already a success. You don't get these types of discussions going on about all of the other towers going up on the east river because the designs are boring.
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