With climate change at the forefront of the national conversation and April 2020 marking the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, it's high time to take a dive into Brooklyn's environmental history. This City Story explores the impact of industrialization along Brooklyn's waterways, sites of notorious pollution, sustainability challenges, the effects of increased temperatures on our coastlines, and the changing ecology of our urban landscape.

Exploring foodways in Brooklyn, historic and contemporary, offers up a unique cross-section of considerations around why we eat what we eat, where it comes from, and what that means. What Brooklyn consumes is defined by its plurality and variety. The borough’s access to waterfront shipping ports and proximity to upstate farmlands adds an additional layer to the near-endless number of restaurants, bodegas, grocery stores, delivery options, food trucks, farm stands, and home-cooked meals we enjoy today. Looking back over Brooklyn's peak industrial period in the 19th and 20th centuries, we can also see how businesses such as sugar refineries, breweries, and poultry farms shaped the social and cultural landscape⁠—and indeed, the landscape itself⁠—of Kings County.

Williamsburg was incorporated into Bushwick as the "Village of Williamsburgh" within the Town of Bushwick in 1827. After two years, it had a population of over 1,000, a fire department, and a post office. Its prime location on the East River encouraged industrialists to build shipyards around Williamsburg. As such, it became a hub of industry. In 1840, Williamsburg separated from the Town of Bushwick and became the Town of Williamsburg. Edmund Smith Driggs, a Williamsburg resident, was elected the first president of the Village in 1850. Driggs Avenue is named after him. It became the City of Williamsburg (then discarding the 'h' in 1855 and was organized into three wards. Finally, in 1898 Brooklyn became one of the high boroughs within NYC and so Williamsburg became part of the City of Greater New York. The Williamsburg Bridge was opened shortly after.

Sugar refining was one of New York City's leading industries from colonial times, when thick-walled masonry "sugar houses" of five to seven stories were some of the tallest structures in Manhattan. The first of these vertical factories was erected on Wall Street in 1729, and at least four similar sugar houses operated in lower Manhattan through the mid-1830s, when new machinery and methods transformed the production process. In 1884, Havemeyer & Elder constructed the world's largest sugar refinery on the Brooklyn waterfront. The burgeoning industry consolidated in 1897 under a cartel led by the Havemeyer family's Sugar Refineries Company (later renamed the American Sugar Refining Company), at its peak it controlled 98% of the country's sugar production. The Filter, Pan & Finishing House of Havemeyer & Elder was a three-building complex for filtering and reducing, drying, refining, grading, and packaging sugar-- all carried out in vertical production process. The deep waters of Wallabout Bay and Bushwick Creek allowed direct docking for ships unloading raw sugar and taking on packaged goods as cargo. The refinery continued to evolve with additions to the complex in the 1920s and the name was changed to Domino Sugar Corporation in 1991. With a workforce of 4,500, it had a minimum capacity of 1,200 pounds of sugar a day. Refining ceased in 2009, leaving only a packaging operation until the factory closed in 2004. In 2007, the Landmark Preservation Commission designated the original three-building complex as a New York City landmark, noting that, at 155 feet tall, it was the tallest building on the Brooklyn waterfront, approaching the height of early skyscrapers in lower Manhattan's financial district." Plans are underway by developer CPC Resources for a large-scale residential and commercial complex that will restore the Filter, Pan & Finishing House as a community center by Beyer Blinder & Belle Architects and replace the remainder of the site with new high-rise apartment buildings designed by Rafael Vinoly Architects.

In the wake of excessive new construction and urban renewal initiatives across the country there are growing trends of gentrification and community displacement. Using NYC as a case study, how could we consider adaptive reuse of older structures and thoughtful architectural additions to building sites as a way to create not only sustainable architectural precedents, but community-oriented structures? As examples of older structures that have been renovated and established new uses for their building types, the Domino Sugar Factory, Cooper Square CLT Housing Units, and the 122 Community Center serve as examples of adaptive reuse, but comparatively all for different reasons.

“American Sugar Refining Company, East River, Kent Avenue, Between South First and South Second Streets. The Largest in the World.” Ca. 1915. Williamsburg’s East River waterfront was once home to America’s largest concentration of sugar refining facilities — in 1870, the American Sugar refinery processed more than half of the sugar consumed nationally. The original factory, built in 1856, was damaged in an 1882 fire. The current 10-story brick structure was built as a fire-proof replacement. The factory continued to operate until 2004. The site is currently being redeveloped as a residential complex.

Listen to the Gotham Center and Brendan Cooper's podcast on the history on the Domino Sugar Refinery, a monument of New York Industry, while examining these related archival images!

Take a walk from the Williamsburg Bridge to admire the neighborhood as it was and still is.