Photographs from the book are also on display at New York’s Front Room Gallery until January 14.īrooklyn's Sweet Ruin: Relics and Stories of the Domino Sugar Refineryīrooklyn's Domino Sugar Refinery, once the largest in the world, shut down in 2004 after a long struggle. Long fascinated by old factories and urban landscapes, he found in the buildings an intriguing subject: a type of Rorschach test because, he said in an interview, the factory “represents different things to so many different groups of people.” Raphaelson’s desire to explore how cities and societies relate to their symbols of modernity and progress-and what happens when they are outgrown and abandoned-drives his new photo book, Brooklyn’s Sweet Ruin: Relics and Stories of the Domino Sugary Refinery. For the next decade, the buildings sat still, quiet and empty-falling into disrepair, awaiting destruction.Ī year before demolition began clearing the way for new developments along the waterfront, photographer Paul Raphaelson documented the refinery’s remnants. But in 2004, the machines stopped and workers laid off. Inside its humid and sticky walls, workers spent long days laboring over machines refining raw sugar from Caribbean plantations.
Though the replica has stayed true to the original sign’s design, it has been reimagined to be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than before.For 150 years, a massive building and its annexes loomed over the East River and Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood. The letters of the sign match the same dimensions of the original (“DOMINO” 23’ 10’’ tall, “SUGAR” 9’ 7’), totaling to 43 feet 6.5 inches tall and 65 feet 8 inches wide from top to bottom of the “S.” The new sign is situated in front of what will be a barrel-shaped glass-enclosed penthouse, added to the 12-story building. Coming across the Williamsburg Bridge, there was always that Domino’s sign to welcome you home.” “It’s exciting to have a sign back,” Ward Dennis, Domino Sugar Factory historian and Brooklyn native, told the New York Times. The revitalization of the sign comes from real estate development company, Two Trees Management. Recently, the “Domino” letters joined in position, returning the iconic symbol to The Refinery in all of its glory. The bottom part of the two-word sign that reads “sugar” was first fixed atop The Refinery building back in November. Just last night, a magnificent replica of the original sign was lit for the first time, towering over Brooklyn’s waterfront once again. However, the original sign was taken down following the factory’s closure in the early 2000s. The recognizable sign marked the building for over 80 years. One of the most identifiable features to the building’s architecture was undoubtedly the Domino Sugar sign. The all-electric and net-zero carbon building will feature 2,800 rental apartments, 600,000 square feet of commercial office space, 200,000 square feet of retail and 6-acres of public park space.
Though its days of refining raw sugar are long over, it’s been under construction to become a 460,000-square-foot rentable office space called The Refinery.
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