The Refinery is seminal to PAU’s body of work because it embodies PAU’s concern for the palimpsest of the city, for conserving embodied energy and narrative, and for celebrating history by projecting it into the future. While a partner at SHoP Architects, PAU Founder and Creative Director, Vishaan Chakrabarti, and the landscape firm Field Operations established a plan for the 11-acre site including a quarter-mile long waterfront park, a plaza adjacent to the Refinery, and a street grid that extends the fabric of Williamsburg. In 2017, soon after Chakrabarti founded PAU, Two Trees commissioned PAU to adapt the refinery structure for creative office space, an event venue, and ground floor food, beverage, and shops. Purpose-built for sugar production, the NYC landmark is a merger of three separate structures with small, misaligned windows. PAU’s elegant design responded by nesting a contemporary curtainwall building within the historic masonry—what some call “a bottle in a ship”—in order to create level, wheelchair-friendly office floors bathed with ambient light. The brick exterior shades the interior from heat gain while revealing vignettes of the city and river beyond. The gap between the two façades enables daylight, biophilia, and interior views of the scarred and mottled brick, resulting in a unique post-pandemic workspace of the future. The skyline barrel vault, achieved by recessing rooftop mechanicals, references the American Round Arch style of the historic structure’s windows and creates column-free event space with stunning views. On the ground floor the windowsills have been dropped to grade to create porosity from shops into the surrounding parks. The progressive design received near-unanimous approval from the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and has become a beloved part of the community.