CORE 2 | MIT SA+P
Prof. Mariana Ibanez

The neon Domino Sugar sign looms over the East River like a beacon, visible for miles. Gleaming above the Brooklyn complex where sugar has been refined for more than a century, it has become a symbol of a rapidly fading industrial legacy, a reminder that the city known for high-tech finance and elegant living was built on ships and machinery, brawn and sweat.

Although the sign itself may remain illuminated, much of the work it heralds will soon cease. In January at the mammoth brick refinery, a relic of the time when New York led the nation in sugar processing, office staff members and unions representing the other workers were told that sometime before February, the refinery would be forced to close.