Now there’s a beautifully doomed counter-proposal for the Domino development

It’s become conventional wisdom that the Domino factory site was about to go through enormous upheaval, as luxury towers went up along the water and added thousands of new residents to Williamsburg. And don’t get it twisted, that’s still definitely happening. But now opponents at least have an alternate, no giant tower-plan for the Domino development to point to and say, “See what beautiful thing could have gone there instead?” Of course, it’s coming in so late in the game that buying the site from Jed Walentas and Two Trees would cost all of the money, so it will remain nothing but a beautiful, doomed dream.

Arch Daily studied the new proposal, from architecture firm HAO, who teamed up with small-scale development advocates Williamsburg Independent People. No building on the site would be taller than Williamsburg bridge, and would instead conform to the heights of the buildings in the surrounding area. The plan calls for 700,000 square feet of gallery space open the public, along with theater space and a green energy technology space, among other things.

What the plan doesn’t include in any way is any kind of housing. Which, given that everyone keeps trying to move to Williamsburg, the area could probably at least use a little bit. Maybe not 2,000 luxury apartments (actually it definitely doesn’t need that), but any housing advocate is more than welcome to explain in the comments why “including some housing at Domino” is a deeply wrong belief. Of course, since this plan requires Jed Walentas’ heart to grow three sizes some day and sell his rights to the land and scrap his plan, we just don’t see the cultural space plan happening.