Michael Lappin, CEO of the managing company for what is being called the "New Domino", responded yesterday to our questions about the proposed project via email.

The iconic Domino Sugar sign is not included in these renderings. [We photoshopped it back in, above.] Is there any plan to preserve that somewhere at the site? We are making every effort to save the sign. We are looking at different engineering solutions regarding the “where and how.” It’s a complex problem.

Well, candy is in the mouth of the beholder, but here are the actual renderings. As noted yesterday, the proposals for the new residential and retail complex at the Domino Refinery will be presented to the Landmarks Preservation Commission at a public hearing today at 2pm at the Municipal Building (1 Centre Street), 9th Floor North. Brownstoner posted snapshots of the renderings taken last week at a community board meeting, as well as floor plans for the modified refinery, which would feature five floors of residential units on the roof. more ›

This past September, preservationists won a major victory when the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to give parts of the massive old Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg landmark status. Three of the buildings at the site will be preserved and renovated for residential use, including some affordable housing. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Austin St. in Queens, a pedestrian struck off Balfour Pl. and Empire Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a rescue on Bank St. in Manhattan.
• The Domino Sugar factory on Brooklyn's waterfront has achieved landmark status.
• David Chase is heading to court to face a former municipal court judge who claims he came up with an idea for a show about a northern NJ mob family.
• David Blaine's next stunt of endurance in the Big Apple will be a tribute to I-bankers and lawyers logging billable hours, as he attempts to stay awake for as long as humanly possibly. The magic? No cocaine.
• Led Zeppelin may be traveling back to NYC for a return engagement. The songs remain the same.
• The men convicted in the 1989 "wilding" Central Park rape attack case have been given the go-ahead to update their lawsuits against the city.
• A former waitress at the strip club Scores is suing one of the managers for sexual harassment.
• New York City as retirement village.

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An armored robbery in Queens, a boat in distress east of the Steeplechase Pier in Brooklyn and a school bus accident in Staten Island. The bids are in for the West Side Yards, and the companies that submitted them are Extell Development Company, Brookfield Properties Developer LLC, The Related Companies, TS West Side Holding, LLC (A Joint Venture of Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley), and Hudson Center East LLC... more ›

This afternoon, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to give parts of the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg landmark status. Redevelopment plans for the old Domino location call for 2,200 apartments (about 660 will be affordable housing) on the entire 11.5 acre site. The Landmark status was specifically given to three buildings (the filter house, the pan house, and the finishing house). Even before the LPC acted, development of the site included some preservation despite the construction of many new buildings. It's unclear how the landmark status will affect redevelopment plans. more ›

The folks behind the video presenting an alternate plan for the Domino Sugar Factory site have launched a website that lays their idea out a little more clearly. The plan, as presented on dominosugar.org, is for the site to turn into a "global cultural center", regenerating the industrial site like the Tate Modern in London, which they say is "directly relevant and well documented." The website estimates that a cultural attraction at the Domino site would generate between $60-80 million a year, excluding monies generated in the surrounding area. more ›

In 2004, we believed that the Domino Sugar Factory would make for a great museum, à la the Tate Modern. Today the NY Sun reports that a group of Brooklyn artists are calling on the Community Preservation Corporation Resources development company "to change its plans for the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, pushing for the creation of a cultural complex similar to London's Tate Modern art museum." more ›

The NY Times explores the world of the urban explorer this week. The group will also accept the following labels: urban spelunker, infiltrator, hacker and guerilla urbanist...in case you were wondering. They do exactly what their name(s) imply, granting themselves an all-access pass to the city whenever they want it. more ›

The developer who plans to transform Brooklyn waterfront where the Domino Sugar factory stands unveiled the billion-dollar plans yesterday. According to the NY Sun, there will be 2,200 housing units, 120,000 square feet of retail space, and 100,000 square feet of community space. Thirty percent of the housing will be affordable: 530 will be rentals (100 units for families making $21,000; 330 for families making up to $40,000; "100 for seniors who make up to 50% of the median income for the area") while 130 units will be for sale to "families making up to $90,000 annually." more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck at Richmond Terrace and Federal Place on Staten Island, a water rescue at Chambers St. and River Terrace off Manhattan, and a homicide at Bruner and Barnes Aves. in the Bronx.
• A Connecticut doctor lost his family yesterday after two men broke into his home and held them hostage, while one family member was taken to a nearby bank to withdraw money. After killing the man's wife and two teenage daughters, the suspects set the house on fire before being apprehended at a police road block.The doctor survived a head wound and is in stable condition.
• The Weekly World News, the checkout line eye-catching tabloid that brought us Batboy, is folding in early August. There are rumors in the publishing world that Teen Vogue may follow suit.
• A stripped-down, one act version of the Broadway production Suessical will be playing at the Lucille Lortel Theater on Christopher St. this summer and all tickets are free.
• A puzzling brickwork sybmol built into a wall on Pearl St. in 1832. The building was destroyed, but the section of wall was preserved to keep the mystery alive.
• Curbed looks around the Domino Sugar plant on Brooklyn's waterfront.
• G-Unit member and rapper Tony Yayo rejected an offered plea deal that would have him serve nine months for slapping and punching a 14-year-old on 25th St. this March.
• 22-year-old Derick Phanord was arrested and charged with animal cruelty after police said he confessed to tying his dog to a tree, dousing it with clorox and then gasoline, and then setting the pitbull on fire. Phanord pleaded not guilty, but police say that in his confession, Phanord admitted he left his dog to die because it was "unfriendly."
• ConEd hasn't cornered the market on poor service. Blackouts are happening all over San Francisco today, and the servers for sites Craigslist, Live Journal, VOX are all temporarily offline.

It's one thing to read that developers who have the Domino Sugar Factory property in Brooklyn want to build 2,200 apartments. It's another thing to actually see renderings of what that could look like. The city's Department of Planning put a draft Scope of Work for the project online, in anticipation of public scoping meeting on July 31, 2007 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM and from 6:00 PM to 8:45 PM. more ›

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing about landmarks designation for the Domino Sugar Factory, a complex of buildings on the Brooklyn waterfront. Overall, preservationists, community members, and the developers agreed that preservation is important. The only question is how much should be preserved: While the main refinery building will almost certainly be landmarked given support, there's debate about the surrounding area. more ›

The Domino Sugar Refinery might be Brooklyn's signature building representing the borough's industrial history. Looking across the East River from Manhattan while below the Williamsburg Bridge, its presence on the Brooklyn waterfront is dominating. That Manhattan vantage point surrendered its industrial heritage of gasworks and docks more than a century ago, to tenements followed by high-rise apartment housing complexes. Now the factory is an icon of the battle to convert Brooklyn's waterfront from an industrial setting to a residential one. more ›

MUSIC: You know summer is just around the corner when the Seaport Music Festival has their first show of the season. Tonight Animal Collective, Danielson and XXXChange (Spank Rock) will all be on Pier 17 for a FREE show! Come, drink, listen. more ›

THEATER: Theodora Skipitares is a Greek-American playwright, director and puppeteer who uses near life-size puppets and Greek tragedies to look at our current situation in Iraq. (Her rendition of the Iliad and the Odyssey was a sold-out hit at La MaMa last year.) Her new show, which features puppetry and video, is The Exiles, an adaptation of the Orestes/Electra myth. “In this particular story of betrayal and vengeance, these puppets are an eerie construction of facade and public display, while their operators are a shadow of primal, often raw emotions and personal desires.” (Read last month's Times profile of Skipitares here.) - John Del Signore more ›

• On the Gothamist Newsmap today: A naked EDP on East 14th Street in Manhattan, a van into a building on Cromwell Avenue in Staten Island, and an illegal factory in Brooklyn
• Stupid China! A stock sell-off in the most populous country caused the Dow to drop 416 points
• The Brooklyn Record looks at Con Ed's green power option

- Tim Berners-Lee on net neutrality: "When I invented the Web, I didn't have to ask anyone's permission." Touché. more ›

- Why someone hates the Ten Commandments on YouTube more ›

One of the most under-appreciated neon signs in the city sits on the West wall of the abandoned Domino Sugar Plant on the East River. Today we're giving it some love, in the form of a link to this flickr slideshow, and this oilpainting, and this peek into the factory. Does anyone know what's going on with the building? We haven't heard anything about it since last year, when the factory was sold. more ›

more ›

The Domino Sugar Plant in Williamsburg has been bought. The NY Times reports that developers have not disclosed what the plant will be, but notes that one of the partners, Isaac Katan, is a "Brooklyn developer who has helped gentrify Fourth Avenue in Park Slope", while the other partner, C.P.C. Resources, has experience in rehabilitation of older apartments. The article also notes that when the plant stopped sugar production (but remained open) last August, City Planning department had wanted to keep the plant for manufacturing, but things might have changed. Gothamist knows this much: The views from the plant would be really spectacular, whether residential or a commercial property...it would be cool to put a museum there, the way the Tate Modern, DIA Beacon and Mass MoCA are in old plants. But that doesn't do much to ensure blue collar jobs, so we'll be curious to see how planning officials and developers address the issue. more ›

The Domino Sugar Plant in Williamsburg closes today. The American Sugar Refining Co. bought the plant in 2001, but not says the Brooklyn plant "was not equipped to compete with its plants in Baltimore, Yonkers, N.Y., and outside New Orleans." Two hundred people will lose their jobs. more ›