Finally, Something To Be Proud Of

After years of having all manner of charmless, graceless structures foisted on our neighborhood, finally, Williamsburg has something to be proud of.

Back in April, 2011, the owners of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building at the corner of Driggs  Avenue and Broadway began renovating the building.

It's taken close to three years and the outside renovations are finished at last (or all but, there is still a little cosmetic work being done in spots). And it was definitely worth waiting for.

I don't know what it's going to be used for. At one point I heard that the outdoor market over on the river was going to move here, then I heard it was going to be a sort of conference center. I don't really keep my ear to the ground any more so the plans could be widely known but I don't know them.

I was stopped by a woman out on Broadway last year and asked if I would sign some sheet that said I had no objection to a facility there having a liquor license. I think she said that part of the building would be used as a kind of banqueting facility. Maybe it's all part of the same plan. I signed the sheet. Considering how our MIA Community Board has let Bedford Ave., Grand St., and surrounding streets turn into Barlandia, I really couldn't complain about a banqueting hall out on Broadway.

I haven't wanted to do much with this blog because the way the neighborhood has changed is so depressing that on many days I want to pack up and leave. And I still think that there isn't much wrong that a few planeloads of Napalm couldn't cure. But more of that later (maybe). Why mar the photos of an attractive building with depressing thoughts like those.

I checked, they even set the clock to the correct time. Sadly this is the one part of the building that cannot be seen as it originally was because of the Williamsburg Bridge approach/exit roads and, more importantly, the elevated J/Z tracks directly behind the building. As it is now, the clock can only be seen, obliquely, from the sidewalk going past. The dumpsters for Peter Luger's are under there behind a locked gate; someone was dumping a load of refuse when I went by and I took the opportunity to dart in and shoot a photo of the clock. As usual, click on a photo to see it in its full size.