Joining founder of the Waterfront Preservation Alliance of Greenpoint and Williamsburg Ward Dennis were: moderator and president of the Society for Industrial Archaeology Mary Habstritt; MAS director of advocacy and policy Lisa Kersavage; president & chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Andrew Kimball; and preservation consultant to the Austin, Nichols, warehouse rehabilitation Robert Powers. Continue Reading>>

New York City was once the nation’s power house for manufacturing, and many of the buildings and factories that fueled that industry remain. Preserving these buildings and using them to foster green-collar industries or adapting them to new housing, cultural, and retail uses is the most sustainable action New York could take.

Tonight’s program, Recycling New York’s Industrial Past: Inspiration From Home and Abroad, will explore two approaches to preserving industrial buildings: keeping them for manufacturing uses (which also means retaining good-paying jobs) or adapting these buildings to new uses, like the ice skating rink at the former Coking Plant in Essen, Germany, above at left. Tickets are still available for the program and can be purchased by calling 212-935-2075. Continue Reading>>

MAS in the Press: MAS will lead tours of Coney Island and Williamsburg, Brooklyn this week (Brooklyn Daily Eagle).

MAS Issues in the Press:
- The Nets arena may not be finished until 2011, according to developer Forest City Ratner (New York Observer); however due to the eminent domain case filed in state court last week, the realistic date of completion may be later (Atlantic Yards Report). The City’s Economic Development Corporation has hit a snag in their attempt to acquire and relocate the largest, privately owned business in Willets Point, Queens (Crain’s New York Business).

- Opponents of the proposed expansion of the Hospital for Special Surgery on the Upper East Side fear worsening traffic congestion and air quality, and loss of scenic river views (New York Times). Starbucks isn’t New York City’s most prolific chain store, Dunkin’ Donuts is (Brooklyn Daily Eagle). Continue Reading>>

After applauding the Landmarks Preservation Commission for designating three of the Domino Sugar Refinery buildings, MAS expressed deep concern with a proposed glass box proposed addition that was heard before the Commission in mid-February, and urged that future development assimilate the memory of Brooklyn’s industrial heritage into its new life.

For 148 years, ships delivered sugar cane from as far away as India to the Domino Sugar plant (originally American Sugar Refining Company) on the East River. In the massive factory buildings workers processed the cane into granulated sugar and packaged it for distribution. The Brooklyn plant was one of the largest refineries in the world, and by 1870 more than half of the sugar consumed in the entire country was refined here. Continue Reading>>

Brooklyn’s Industrial Waterfront is the focus of a major designation day at the Landmarks Preservation Commission next week. On Tuesday, October 30, the Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed DUMBO Historic District and vote on the designation of the Eberhard Pencil Factory Historic District. Both sites were highlighted in the MAS’s successful nomination of the Brooklyn industrial waterfront heritage to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 Most Endangered Places for 2007. The Commission’s action on DUMBO and Eberhard Faber follows the designation of the Domino Sugar Factory in September.

DUMBO is significant for its association with the rise of the city of Brooklyn as a major American industrial center and is unique to New York City for its nineteenth and early twentieth century industrial buildings, Belgian block streets, and its location on the East River by the imposing anchorage of the Manhattan Bridge. Continue Reading>>

The developer CPC Resources proposes to redevelop the former Domino Sugar Refinery site on the Brooklyn waterfront and an upland parcel by constructing new residential buildings containing 2200 apartments (of which 660 would be affordable) while adaptively reusing the main refinery buildings. The City Planning Commission recently held a hearing for the scope of the forthcoming environmental review, and the MAS submitted comments focusing on the need to explore reusing more of the historic resources on the site, building shorter and less dense buildings, retaining industrial jobs in the surrounding area, greater use of sustainability strategies in light of the Mayor’s PlaNYC initiative, and maximizing the public quality of the open space and waterfront access in the proposal while maintaining the commitment to the project’s affordable housing component. Click here to read the MAS comments and here for more details about the Domino Sugar Refinery site.

On June 14, 2007 the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the industrial heritage of the Brooklyn waterfront to its annual list of the nation’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, based on a nomination made by the Municipal Art Society. Since that announcement, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has taken action to protect some of the most significant places on the waterfront and have held hearings on three of the sites highlighted in the MAS nomination. Continue Reading>>

What do a casket factory, a glass factory and a high-tech laboratory have in common? All are former industrial buildings that have been transformed into high-quality housing for low-income people. While some developers say that to build affordable housing we must sacrifice historic buildings and significant neighborhoods, history demonstrates clearly that we can have both. New York City has a long record of readapting historic buildings for many uses, including affordable housing. Continue Reading>>

Greenpoint and Williamsburg have a long and venerable past, and there remains a wealth of buildings related to their history. Williamsburg, which in the 1850s was the third-largest city in the region, is filled with 19th-century rowhouses and manufacturing buildings interspersed with historic banks, schools, churches and synagogues. In Greenpoint, 90 percent of the existing housing stock was built before World War II, much of it constructed by the 19th-century shipbuilders who worked on the nearby docks. Amid this rich housing stock are some of Brooklyn’s oldest churches — and significant collections of manufacturing buildings that are reminders of the neighborhood’s industrial past. These buildings, which bear witness to the neighborhoods’ rich history, also play a significant role in shaping the character and sense of place of these communities. When the city brought forward a proposal to rezone large sections of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, we became concerned that the historic buildings would be negatively impacted if steps were not taken to protect them. Continue Reading>>

The Domino Sugar Refinery buildings in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — one of the most prominent industrial heritage sites on the East River — is endangered by a major residential development proposal, but help may be on the way.  The MAS has requested that the Landmarks Preservation Commission designate the 13-building complex as a city landmark so that it can be preserved and reused, and to ensure that any buildings added to the site will fit with the site’s historic character. Continue Reading>>