Domino Square Opens in Brooklyn

Even though Domino stopped making sugar at its Brooklyn waterfront plant about twenty years ago, the company's impressive brick refinery from the 1880s — now an office building topped by a glass vaulted roof — sits in the middle of Two Trees Management's mixed-use development as a reminder of the site's industrial past. That history is also on display in Domino Park, the six-year-old waterfront esplanade designed by Field Operations that features dozens of large-scale relics from the refinery, most notably a row of columns from the old warehouse that frame a raised walkway across the park, and two impressive gantry cranes at the north end of the park that are painted a striking light blue. The Brooklyn park made global headlines during the pandemic, when photographs of social-distancing circles on the lawn were shared across the internet.

Domino Square, the latest element of Domino Park, marks the completion of the public spaces that link the various residential and commercial components of the development and give Brooklynites spaces for recreation and relaxation. Like the waterfront park, Domino Square is also designed by Field Operations, this time in collaboration with Studio Cadena. The one-acre block sits adjacent to three of the five buildings that comprise the masterplan developed by SHoP Architects for Two Trees: 325 Kent, a residential block designed by SHoP (2018); Domino Sugar Refinery, an office building designed by PAU (2023), and One Domino Square, a pair of residential towers designed by Selldorf Architects (2024). The other two buildings, at the northern end of the site, are COOKFOX's interconnected residential and office towers, respectively, One South First and Ten Grand (2019), and the empty Site B that is still in the planning stages.

Domino Square features an oval-shaped open space topped by a shade structure, tiered seating facing the oval, perimeter plantings with trees and shrubs, and retail spaces along the west that are topped by vegetation. The retail storefronts, designed by Studio Cadena with a zigzag profile and a rough concrete finish, give the full-block public plaza an urban edge along Kent Avenue. A break between the storefronts provides access to the plaza, as do walkways between the plantings on the other three sides of the space. The tiered seating ascends the roofs of the retail, which are also punctuated by smokestacks of various heights. On a visit to Domino Square this week, the design team and developer explained that the smokestacks vent from a wastewater facility beneath the plaza; dedicated to the development, it is set to be operational next year.

With so much of Domino Square given over to the “bowl-like” interior, as it is called in a statement from the developer, what are the plans for the use of the space? The tiered seating makes it a natural setting for outdoor performances, aided by the lighting integrated into the tensile shade structure. Renderings from Field Operations show ice skating in the winter, a use that determined the nearly flat slope of the oval. Ultimately, flexibility is the key descriptor, with “community activations” to be generated both from the top-down and the bottom-up, including farmer's markets and school graduations, but also salsa nights and more.