Overlooking a small cove off the East River in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, a group of four- and five-story former warehouses, built in 1869 and 1885, respectively, had been languishing for over half a century, vacant and disused. Now, nearly 150 years since their construction, the Empire Stores, as they were called, are thriving again as an integral part of New York’s Dumbo neighborhood and the waterfront development in Brooklyn Bridge Park. A thoughtful intervention by Studio V Architecture and S9 Architecture not only maintains the integrity of the existing structures—designated New York State landmarks in 1978—it knits them into a single entity, transforming the 350,000-square-foot timber and masonry facility (once largely used for warehousing coffee) into a lively blend of commercial and public spaces that includes a 100,000-square-foot roof addition, 50,000 square feet of green roofs, and a 7,000-square-foot extension of the park that climbs to the roof.