Mark Tiler Richmond on left; Paul B. Macro on right holding Brickitzer award inside The Bricklyn Eagle offices. Photo by Ann Tiler Anderson, with assistance from Dall E-3 AI.
by Gloria Vanderbrick, People in the News Correspondent
Bricklyn Eagle reporters Paul B. Macro and Mark Tiler Richmond were just named winners of the 2025 Brickitzer prize for local reporting for their coverage of the attempt by Dunk Them Donuts to build a high-rise donut-topped skyscraper that would have required demolition of the historic Stansbury Hotel Building in the heart of downtown Bricklyn Junction.
Macro and Richmond thanked their newsroom colleagues for supporting their time-intensive reporting by taking on some of the assignments they would otherwise have had to handle.
Walt Brickman
Bricklyn Eagle Editor Walt Brickman praised the pair for “focusing on the facts of the story, and aggressively following up on leads,” adding that “Paul and Mark also shared their talents, with Paul’s background with business issues and Mark’s with politics. Their combined skills were essential to covering this complex, multi-faceted story.” ✥
For readers new to The Bricklyn Eagle, here are links to Macro and Richmond’s award-winning series of articles on the proposed “Donut Tower,” from oldest to most recent.
One of the most puzzling aspects of Bricklyn to Outlanders (i.e.,humans) is the fact that only about one-quarter of the Realm of Bricklyn can be seen by them when they visit Bricklyn. The remainder is blocked from view by the Great Wall of Bricklyn.
What the Great Wall Means for Outlanders
The historic Stansbury Hotel, once threatend with demolition by Dunk Them Donuts, is at the heart of downtown Bricklyn Jct. While the Great Wall prevents Outland visitors from seeing any of Bricklyn Jct., Outlanders can view photos provided by Bricklynites of these otherwise off-limits parts of The Realm. Photo by Ann Tiler Anderson. for The Bricklyn Eagle, with assistance from Dall E-3 AI.
What is hidden by the Great Wall?
Most significantly, most of South Bricklyn (including the airport; the regional high school; and the medical center) and all of Bricklyn Junction, including its historic downtown.
A substantial portion of the city of Bricklyn itself — including most residential districts — is also shielded by the Wall from the view of Outland visitors.
What is NOT hidden by the Great Wall and visible to Outlanders?
Bricklyn Harbor, and part of downtown. Also visible is the Brick Rail bridge connecting Bricklyn to South Bricklyn and beyond. Photo by Ann Tiler Anderson for The Bricklyn Eagle, taken from NewsChopper5.
Downtown Bricklyn (including government offices; the courthouse; city hall; the theater; the natural history museum; the arboretum; and the central railroad station);
Photo by Walt Brickman (with assistance from Dall E-3) of a portion of the south side of The Great Wall of Bricklyn with its strange patterns. Different sections of the Wall have different patterns on the face of the Wall.
Portions of the Great Wall of Bricklyn have strange, intricate patterns and designs.
The Great Wall’s Origins
No one in Bricklyn, including historians and scientists, can fully explain the origins of these patterns and designs, or how the Great Wall acts to block Outlanders’ view of those portions of the Realm outside the Great Wall.
According to Bricklyn’s Chief Historian, Winifred Tiler Jackson:
“The Great Wall was constructed, according to plastic residue dating, in the first half of the fifth century BCE by some ancient people, perhaps castaways in the ‘New World,’ but with remarkable skills that we are only now beginning to understand.
Illustration of possible ancient peoples living at the site of present-day Bricklyn. Image prepared by Dall E-3 AI, with input from historian W.T. Jackson.
“Hidden in a corner of present day Vermont, The Great Wall ‘s presence kept the area now known as Bricklyn unseen by humans — undoubtedly a protective blessing. These ancient peoples, for reasons not yet known to historians, disappeared from the area by the second century BCE.
“It was not until the early 18th century that a shipload of LEGO people voyaged to colonial America in search of the remarkable wall that they had heard about from long-time legends.
Visualization of Colonial-era Bricklynites alongside a section of The Great Wall. Prepared by Dall E-3 AI. based on informational prompts from Bricklyn Chief Historian W.T. Jackson.
“At least a dozen of these Bricklynites (then called ‘Little Vermonters’) served with distinction as spies with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. The Bricklynites’ extremely small size — and their courage — proved to be invaluable assets to the American cause.
“Remarkably, within two years of arriving they had found The Great Wall, and began building the settlement they called Bricklyn, largely within the protective confines of the Wall. This was, of course, three centuries before the great emigration of LEGO peoples from Denmark in the 1970s and ’80s, including a wave of migrants who sought a new home in the cities of Bricklyn, South Bricklyn, and Bricklyn, Junction, Vermont.”
Walled Villages & Cities in Medieval Times
Historian Jackson has also researched walled villages in other Inland realms, and considers it likely that ancestors of many Bricklyn families would have lived in walled realms like those shown in the renderings below during Europe’s “Middle Ages.”
Visualizations above of walled cities ancestors of today’s LEGO people might have looked like.Images generated by Dall E-3 AI, based on data inputs from Bricklyn Historian W.T. Jackson.
Historian Jackson also asked us to link to the following two videos. The first briefly explores Europe’s heritage of defensive city walls, and how they helped define the shape of cities. The second video provides quite fascinating aerial views of 15 walled cities — though Jackson recommends watching the second video with the sound off, as she found the narrator’s “voice” quite irritating!
Tunnels through the Great Wall of Bricklyn
Even though the Great Wall of Bricklyn remains hidden from Outlanders, Bricklynites easily navigate through the Wall using any of eighteen short tunnels. Eleven are solely for pedestrians and cyclists, while three serve Brick Rail freight and passenger trains. and the final four are for cars, buses, and trucks..
Most of the these passages connect areas in downtown Bricklyn and its near downtown neighborhoods with adjoining parts of South Bricklyn or Bricklyn Junction. Two of the bike/ped tunnels and one of the rail tunnels are shown below. Photos by Bricklyn Eagle staff photographer Ann Tiler Anderson, with assistance from Dall E-3 AI.
Drawing Inspiration from The Great Wall to Help Meet Bricklyn’s Housing Needs
Bricklyn’s Great Wall Street — which runs along portions of the Great Wall — is the focus of new zoning provisions which will allow for dense new high-rise buildings on a number of lots facing the Great Wall.
The Bricklyn Planning Commission felt that allowing taller buildings along the east side of Great Wall Street would better match the height and scale of the Great Wall (which parallels the west side of the street) while also helping address housing shortages within the Realm.
Bricklyn Planning Director Tim Brickedy and his staff drafted the necessary zoning changes and then shepherded them through the Federal Council, which adopted them just this past September.
Portions of the Great Wall of Bricklyn (on left) bordering Great Wall Street. On the right, facing the Great Wall, would be new housing.
Two residential projects are already on the drawing board, once again teaming Dunk Them Donuts CEO Dave Broffman with Bricklyn architect Moshi Saftbrick.
See several of Saftbrick’s initial renderings.
“The new buildings,” Saftbrick told The Bricklyn Eagle, “would respond to the chiseled, layered look of the ancient Great Wall, while bringing to Bricklyn a cleaner, contemporary design.”
Historian W.T. Jackson adds this historical footnote: “In the above photo rendering, note the ‘Star of David’ motif on the section of the ancient Wall located at the corner of Lower North Street and Great Wall Street. I’m not alone in wondering whether this could reflect the presence in ancient Bricklyn of one of the ‘lost tribes’ of Israel. Plastic residue dating of this part of the Wall has proven inconclusive.” Illustrations by Dall E-3 AI based on prompts by Moshi Saftbrick and his team.
Edited in Prisma app with TokyoEdited in Prisma app with Tokyo
Renderings by Dall E-3 AI based on prompts provided by architect Moshi Saftbrick and his team.
Additional Resources for Understanding The Great Wall
Below: nighttime view of portion of Bricklyn Jct., on a snowy, Winter night. The fact that there’s snow on the ground makes clear that the we are OUTSIDE the Great Wall of Bricklyn. Portions of the Realm of Bricklyn OUTSIDE the Wall are subject to the same weather as in Burlington, Vermont.
In contrast, those areas INSIDE the Wall are located in the basement of an Outlander, where it never snows or rains! For more on weather phenomena in Bricklyn, see the interview with meteorologist Tiler Brickoski linked to above. — Photo by Bricklyn Eagle photographer Ann Tiler Anderson, with assistance from Dall E-3 AI.
by Paul B. Macro, Bricklyn Eagle Business Reporter and Mark Tiler Richmond, Bricklyn Eagle Politics & Law Correspondent
The pace of events accelerated dramatically after the Chief Prognosticator issued an opinion strongly advising against a zoning change that would have increased the maximum allowable building heights in Bricklyn Junction’s downtown historic district, a change that would have accommodated Dunk Them Donuts’ proposed mixed-use tower topped by a giant revolving, donut-shaped restaurant.
The Chief Prognosticator urged the Planning Department and the Office of the Federal Chancellor to work instead with Dunk Them Donuts to develop an alternative plan that would both meet the company’s needs and result in the rehabilitation and reuse of the historic Stansbury building. The parties held a series of meetings over the past week to see if this could be accomplished. An agreement was reached and announced at a press conference in front of the Stansbury yesterday afternoon.
Dunk Them Donuts CEO David Tiler Broffman with Federal Council President Hilma Plater-Zybrick speaking at a press conference in Bricklyn Junction yesterday.Note that all photos in this post, unless otherwise noted, were taken by Bricklyn Eagle staff, with the assistance of Dall E-3 AI.
Dunk Them Donuts’ CEO David Tiler Broffman, speaking at the press conference said that “Dunk Them Donuts looks forward to working with Federal Council President Hilma Plater-Zybrick, along with Planning Director Tim Brickedy and Federal Chancellor Malter Thurnbrick, to finalize a financial package that will allow us to rapidly proceed with the rehabilitation of the Stansbury, a remarkable building with a storied history in the life of Bricklyn Junction.”
The plans call for moving Dunk Them Donuts’ corporate headquarters into The Dunk, which will also contain office space for Bricklyn government agencies, along with a boutique-style hotel and restaurant, and several retail outlets at street level.
Old postcard view looking across Peach Street from the front of the Hotel Stansbury. The corner building with awnings is the Peach Street House, next up the block, the white faced building is Junction Place. Both buildings were designed by Grover Brickston in the late 1880s.
A surprising part of the plans is that Dunk Them Donuts will also be purchasing the nearby Peach Street and Junction Place buildings, which will be rehabbed to accommodate 88 units of housing, 44 of which will be affordable units for its employees.
Both of these buildings are currently “underutilized,” with some space used for records storage, but considerable space being vacant.
As Broffman noted, “our plans for The Dunk, and for the nearby Peach Street and Junction Place buildings, are certainly ambitious, but we believe they are all achievable.”
Broffman continued with the news that Dunk Them Donuts has retained Salvatore B. Salero, a noted architect when it comes to historic rehabilitation and the design of attractive, but functional, interior spaces. Broffman said that “there will be no corners cut when it comes to restoring the Stansbury and re-opening it as The Dunk, and converting the Junction Place and Peach Street buildings to residential use.”
ll redesign The Dunk’s expansive interior spaces in keeping with the historic character of the former Hotel Stansbury. The building is located on a 200 ft. x 200 ft. lot, and has approximately 115,000 square feet of interior space.
One key to the agreement was Dunk Them Donuts’ concurrence in authorizing Federal Council President Hilma Plater-Zybrick to resolve any disputes that might arise as the project proceeds.
Suzanne Broffman, wife of David Tiler Broffman, who “purchased” the Hotel Stansbury for Brickwater Realty in 20185 under her birth name of Mary Ellen Osterbrick.
Also central to the agreement was a concession made by the Federal Council. As Plater-Zybrick explained, “in the spirit of moving forward, the Council has agreed to drop any further investigation into the Broffman family’s role in setting up a dummy company to buy and manage the Stansbury.”
As The Bricklyn Eagle previously reported, Brickwater Realty, whose principal officer was Suzanne Broffman (wife of Dunk Them Donuts’ CEO David Broffman), purchased the Stansbury using a dummy corporation called Brickwater Realty, allegedly with the intent of allowing the Stansbury to fall into a state of disrepair so that Dunk Them Donuts could later purchase it and claim the building warranted demolition.
The agreement also stipulates that Dunk Them Donuts will provide 10,000 square feet of office space at a steeply discounted price for use by Realm of Bricklyn agencies, providing a financial boon to the Realm’s coffers.
Jonathan Goodbrick, President of The Common Brick.
Jonathan Goodbrick, President of Common Bricks, Bricklyn’s principal “good government” advocacy organization, expressed the group’s “serious reservations” about the termination of the investigation into Dunk Them Donuts’ ties to Brickwater Realty.
Goodbrick, however, indicated that “Common Bricks will not contest this provision, as we believe that the greater good for the Realm, as pronounced by the Chief Prognosticator, is to preserve and rehabilitate the Stansbury, while also providing affordable housing for Dunk Them Donuts employees.”
To allow the rehabilitation to quickly move forward, the following actions and timeline were agreed to:
The former Hotel Stansbury located in the heart of Bricklyn Junction’s historic district.
Intent: The project is to rehab:
(1) the Stansbury (formerly the Hotel Stansbury) as a mixed-use development to be called “The Dunk” and to include: 60,000 square feet to serve as headquarters of Dunk Them Donuts; 10,000 square feet of office space for use by Bricklyn government agencies; a hotel (40 rooms); and ground floor retail and restaurant; and
(2) the Peach Street and Junction Place buildings for housing (88 units, of which 44 will be affordable employee housing).
The Office of the Chief Prognosticator, using its predictive capabilities, worked with architect Sal B. Salero, and received assistance from Dall E-3 AI, to generate a series of renderings showing how Hotel Stansbury interiors might look after being “reborn” as The Dunk. Several of the images are set out below.
Preparation of Rehabilitation Plans: Dunk Them Donuts will work cooperatively with the Bricklyn Planning Department and the Office of the Federal Chancellor in its preparation of detailed rehabilitation plans for The Dunk, and shall submit such plans to the Planning Department for approval no later than November 15, 2024.
Rehab plans for the Peach Street and Junction Place buildings shall be submitted no later than June 15, 2025.
Approval of Rehabilitation Plans: The Bricklyn Planning Department will “fast track” review by the Planning Commission and the Historic Preservation Board of rehabilitation plans submitted by Dunk Them Donuts.
Fee Waivers: The Bricklyn Planning Department will waive permit application fees for the project.
Office Space for Bricklyn Agencies: Dunk Them Donuts will provide the Realm of Bricklyn 10,000 square feet of office space in the The Dunk for use as Bricklyn government offices at 25% below fair market value as determined by an independent commercial appraiser for 10 years following the completion of the project; and at 10% below fair market value for the following 10 years.
Bricklyn Historic Tax Credits: The Realm will provide a 20% tax credit to Dunk Them Donuts to its rehabilitation work.
Historic Preservation Grant: The Office of the Federal Chancellor will also authorize a preservation grant of no less than $150,000 to support the rehabilitation.
Affordable Housing Units: Dunk Them Donuts will provide 44 units of attractive, well-designed affordable housing for rent by its employees in the Peach Street and/or Junction Place buildings, using the definition of affordable housing and the adjusted maximum rental rates as set out in Bricklyn’s Inclusionary Housing ordinance.
Sculptor Clay Brickenburg is seen in black, next to Stephen B. Weston, named to be future manager of the The Dunk Hotel.
Sculptural Donut: With the absence of the originally proposed giant revolving rooftop donut restaurant, Dunk Them Donuts may install a sculpture by noted artist Clay Brickenburg titled “Chocolate with Sprinkles” by The Dunk’s entrance.
Completion Date: Dunk Them Donuts agrees to complete the rehabilitation of the Stansbury as The Dunk, and have it available for occupancy, no later than June 15, 2027, with the housing component in the Peach Street and Junction Place building available by June 15, 2028.
Investigation Into Actions by Brickwater Realty: The Federal Council agrees to terminate its investigation into the relationship between Brickwater Realty and Dunk Them Donuts, and the role of any Dunk Them Donuts officers in failing to maintain the Stansbury, without prejudice to resuming the investigation if the terms of this agreement are not met due to failures on the part of Dunk Them Donuts.
Looking Ahead:
Will Dunk Them Donuts’ ambitious plans materialize over the next three to four years? Many Bricklyn Junction residents, including those committed to the preservation of the old Hotel Stansbury, are cautiously hopeful.
Jeffrey Tiler Thompson, President of the Bricklyn Historic Preservation Society.
Jeffrey Tiler Thompson, President of the Bricklyn Historic Preservation Society, told us that “Our members are very pleased that the out-of scale, donut-topped tower is dead. It’s something we’ve worked hard for in order to save the Stansbury.”
As Thompson continued, “We’re grateful for the wise advice that Chief Prognosticator Bricks offered. We’re also pleased that Dunk Them Donuts will be working with Salvatore Salero, along with Bricklyn planners and staff from the Federal Chancellor’s office, to implement this promising rehabilitation plan for the Stansbury. We’re also very pleased to see the inclusion of the Peach Street and Junction Place buildings in the overall project. While we wholeheartedly offer our support, we’ll also be keeping a close eye on the project as it moves forward.” ✥
To the Editor: On behalf of Common Bricks, I just want to make clear that our decision not to oppose the tentative agreement between Realm officials and Dunk Them Donuts was not made lightly. It was largely because of our faith in the work of Chief Prognosticator Bricks, and the fact that Federal Chancellor Thurnbrick has signed off on the agreement and promised that its investigation into possible Dunk Them Donuts improprieties will resume if Dunk Them Donuts fails to honor its side of the agreement. — Jonathan Goodbrick, President, The Common Brick, Bricklyn, VT
To the Editor: I applaud Dunk Them Donuts’ decision to rehab the old Hotel Stansbury, and to retain the services of the very talented architect, Salvatore Salero. As a fellow Bricklyn architect, I’ve been privileged to work on several projects with Salero, and can attest to his skills and thoughtful approach in bringing what had been run down historic buildings back to life. The renderings you posted of some possible interior renovations just give a taste of what we have to look forward to. — Peter Dinkelbrick, BIA, Bricklyn, VT
To the Editor: I’m one of the Dunk Them Donuts employees who is hoping to find affordable housing in The Dunk, as the company promised us. I just read your article, and see that they’re now calling for 44 affordable housing apartments in two nearby buildings. I thought the number they proposed was 64? What’s going on? — [name withheld], Bricklyn Jct., VT
➤ Reply from the Editor: According to Paul B. Macro, one of our reporters, Dunk Them Donuts scaled back the number of units since the new project includes less square footage than the originally proposed high-rise tower. A representative from the Dunk Them Donuts indicated that the company will try to make up the difference in another location, but this has not yet been resolved.
To the Editor: While I’m very happy that the hotel has been saved and is being refurbished, what gives with the dropping of the suit? Methinks something is rotten in Bricklyn. — Pat from Vermont
