The Refinery is the lone remaining building within the 19th-century Domino Sugar complex. Continuously modified throughout its lifespan to adapt to new technology, PAU was tasked with adapting the structure once again but this time for a new user—creative office workers. Purpose-built for sugar production, the NYC landmark was an agglomeration of three conjoined structures with small, misaligned windows. PAU responded to this condition by inserting a new building that nests within the historic masonry in order to create wheelchair-friendly office floors bathed with light. Pulling back from the existing facade enabled floor heights, daylight, greenery, and interior views of the brick, resulting in class A office spaces ideal for today’s creative workers. The array of historic windows, freed from interior partitions, reveal vignettes of the city and river beyond.

The vaulted form of the new building references the American Round Arch style of the historic structure’s windows and creates a one-of-a-kind penthouse. Recessed rooftop mechanicals, a significant design challenge, allow the curved form to be expressed without interruption. The exterior maintains its industrial grit by preserving the masonry’s patina, scars, and overall form while the perimeter atria between the old and the new façades hosts a biophilic “hanging garden.” A balcony on the southern façade protrudes through an existing opening in the structure, recalling the historic chute for the final stage of sugar packaging in an auxiliary building. Ground floor windows were lowered to door height to create transparency and access to a new Market Hall.

The progressive design received near-unanimous approval from the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. The contrast between the new glass vault and the surrounding historic masonry structure signals a new life for Brooklyn’s working waterfront while focusing attention on the landmark building among an assemblage of taller new buildings.

Image Credits: Max Touhey