WGPA

WPA's recommendations for designation and preservation at the Domino site
Photo: Google Earth

The last piece of the Domino puzzle is the Power House, a tiny building, but a significant one, in that it dates to 1883 (when the entire site was rebuilt). It was thus part of a complex of industrial buildings that became the world's most efficient and prolific sugar making machine. The 1883 Power House replaced an older Havemeyers power house that still stands on South 4th Street. The new (1883) Power House is a tiny building that sits nestled amongst a number of later, larger infrastructure buildings - in fact, it often confused with the much larger Boiler House (ca. 1930), the six-story gambrel roof building that blocks much of the view of the Processing House from the river side. At two stories and less that 25' wide, the Power House is easily missed, yet it matches the architectural expression of the adjacent Processing House. In fact, the Power House retains its original corbelled and pedimented brick parapet, a design detail that has been stripped from the Processing House and the Adant House.

The ground floor of the Power House has been completely obliterated - replaced by a flat brick facade with a garage entry. Yet the building still retains significance for its decorative brick work and its functional and architectural role in the overall refinery complex. At the recent LPC hearing, the Commission's research staff noted that the plans for the new refinery were developed at least a year or two prior to the 1882 fire that destroyed the old Havemeyers refinery. It is certainly possible, then, that the Power House (and the Adant House) were not just ad hoc parts of a larger refinery complex, but carefully considered parts of a whole.

Like the other buildings in the refinery complex that WPA has been advocating for, the Power House is clearly architecturally and functionally consistent with the 1883 Havemeyers & Elder sugar refinery. And like the other buildings that WPA is advocating for, the Power House could easily be a contributing building within a residential redevelopment along the lines of that which CPC is putting forward. The Power House occupies a part of the project that is slated for open space. While preservation of this building would reduce the amount of public open space in the project, the building itself is small enough that it could serve to enhance this planned open space. It could function as a concession area, or remain as a partial ruin (a smaller version of the Tobacco Warehouse in Dumbo's Empire-Fulton Ferry state park). Certainly its retention would not be a significant economic burden, and nor would its retention take away from any planned affordable (or non-affordable) housing in the project.

As reported on Curbed yesterday, the Department of City Planning has released scoping documents for the Domino Sugar Refinery redevelopment. The document is the public's first look at the proposed height, density and massing of the project, as well as the various community benefits such as preservation, affordable housing and open space. And although the plans are still very schematic, the document clearly supports WPA's position regarding the Adant House and the Power House. In both cases, these very historic structures could be incorporated into the design without compromising bulk, density or housing units (affordable or otherwise), and with only minimal impact on the proposed public open space. The plan as proposed now would leave the refinery as a relic of the past, completely unintegrated into the new development. The alternative, one which WPA has consistently advocated, is to retain more of the 19th-century refinery complex and weave these historic elements into the 21st-century residential development.

Domino Rezoning: Partial Kent Avenue Elevation (UPDATED)
The approximate location of the Adant House is outlined in blue.
Base drawing: Domino Rezoning Draft Scope

The scoping document describes the project as a series of towers, with the tallest at 40 stories (2 towers), the next tallest at 30 stories (2 more towers), and the rest between 6 and 20 stories. The scoping document does not provide exact sizes for the smaller towers, but the Kent Avenue elevation (above) makes it pretty clear that the Adant House will be demolished to make way for - get this - a six to eight story apartment building. You may remember from a previous post that the Adant House now stands at four stories. Historically, though, the Adant House was six stories along Kent Avenue with a set-back seventh story. If LPC designated the Adant House the developer would have ample precedent for expanding the current building back to its historic six stories plus penthouse. The portion of the new development that would be affected averages out to about 7 stories. So the argument that preservation of the Adant House would take away from housing units (or affordable housing units) is completely without merit.

As for the Power House, this narrow building sits partially within the footprint of the "additional open space" shown on the scoping site plan (see below). Clearly, preserving this building would have no impact on housing, affordable or otherwise. And it would have only limited impact on the provision of open space. Assuming the whole building has a footprint of 2,500 square feet (a generous assumption), the portion of the building that sits within the public open space is probably less than 1,300 square feet. Further, because the Power House and Refinery were built at the same time, it is possible that the Power House is either structurally or design-wise integral to the Refinery itself. In other words, if you demolish this small two-story structure, what's left of the Refinery behind it?

Domino Rezoning: Proposed Site Plan
The approximate location of the Adant House and Power House are outlined in blue.
Base drawing: Domino Rezoning Draft Scope

WPA continues to believe that the preservation of the Adant House and Power House makes eminent sense from a preservation point of view. We also believe that it makes sense from a public policy point of view, from an urban design point of view, and from a housing and development point of view. In short, we feel that weaving these 19th-century industrial buildings into a 21st-century residential development will make the Domino redevelopment a better project overall.

WPA's monthly meeting will be held on 17 July 2007, at 6:30 pm. For details and location, please email us at wpa[at]waterfrontalliance.org.

Also, you may notice that we have changed our comment forms - commenters are now required to answer a highly technical question in order to post to the site. Hopefully this will take care of our comment spam.

The Pencil Building (ca. 1930) - part of the proposed Eberhard Faber Historic District.

The Landmarks hearing for the designation of the Eberhard Faber Historic District will be Tuesday, 24 July 2007, starting at 9:45 AM. The hearing will be held at the Landmarks Commission's hearing room at the Municipal Building, 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor North (ID required for building entry). The J, M and Z Chambers Street station and 4, 5 and 6 Brooklyn Bridge Station are both under the Municipal Building; the R and W City Hall station is about a block away (sorry, no G train access).

For more on what is and isn't part of the proposed Eberhard Faber Historic District, please see our earlier posts on the subject.

Related:
Demolition at Eberhard
Eberhard on LPC Calendar
Eberhard Faber Claendared

In addition to the preliminary designation hearing for the Eberhard Faber Historic District, the newly-revised Landmarks Calendar for next Tuesday includes the final (we hope) designation of a number of pools - including the McCarren Park Play Center (aka, the McCarren Pool)!

In addition to McCarren, LPC will be designating the Sunset Park Play Center (interior and exterior) and the Thomas Jefferson Play Center in Manhattan.

But wait, there's more! LPC will also be holding a calendaring hearing for the proposed DUMBO Historic District. This first step in the process of creating a new historic district in DUMBO is long, long overdue.

Pencil factory, detail.
Photo: NYC LPC.

The hearing for the Eberhard Faber designation is this morning, at about 10:00, at the Landmarks Preservation Commission (1 Centre Street, 9th Floor North).

Also on the agenda for today is the actual designation of the McCarren Park Pool (almost 15 years after the first designation hearing (!), and close to a quarter century after the pool closed).

In other Brooklyn news, LPC has the calendaring of the DUMBO historic district on its calendar for this morning. Another very long-overdue designation.

Stay tuned.