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Domino Sugar Historic Designation

Testimony last updated June 26, 2007

Testimony on Domino Sugar Factory Landmarking

Lacey Tauber
Pratt Center for Community Development
June 26, 2007

Thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony today. My name is Lacey Tauber and I represent the Pratt Center for Community Development, a university- based organization that works for a more just, equitable, and sustainable city for all New Yorkers by helping communities to plan for and realize their future. I am also a Williamsburg resident.

Pratt Center strongly supports designation of the Domino Sugar factory buildings under consideration today. As you have no doubt heard, the National Trust for Historic Preservation recently named Brooklyn's industrial waterfront among the 11 most endangered historic places in America. This is largely due to the fact that in preparation for the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning, including its environmental impact statement, the city failed to give sufficient attention to the area's historic resources, and now they are vulnerable to the heightened development climate created by the zoning actions nearby. As a result, the character of North Brooklyn is quickly fading with wave upon wave of demolition: the Old Dutch Mustard Building, the zipper factory at N. 10th and Berry, the piers of the former Eastern District Terminal... the list goes on.

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"Street Value" Profiles Fulton Mall Work

News last updated July 7, 2010

Street Value, a new book by Rosten Woo and Meredith TenHoor with Damon Rich (Princeton Architectural Press), delves into the history, streetscape, culture and politics of Brooklyn's Fulton Street Mall. It includes an interview with the Pratt Center's Vicki Weiner and Randall Mason of Minerva Partners, who collaborated on a Pratt Center report recommending strategies for the Fulton Street Mall's preservation. Weiner and Mason sought to preserve not only the architectural legacy of Brooklyn's premier shopping street but also its role as a home to local retailers serving a large and diverse base of longtime customers.

As Weiner told Woo: "Our big 'ah-ha' moment in the analysis of the data happened when we read through and analyzed the shopper surveys and found that a lot of the perceptions of the mall that we'd heard before were just not true - i.e., it's not successful, it's all discount stores."

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