Bending the Rules for a Bank on Bedford

for a commerce bank, its pretty decent

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 9:37 AM

good stuff

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 9:46 AM

it looks like ass

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 9:46 AM

20% of 72 = 14.4

who is gonna be forced to be roomies???

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 9:47 AM

this should be 100% affordable housing (condos, not rentals), with below market financing provided by commerce bank. should be designated for artists, professors, and other creative/cultural personnel who would repay their subsidies by the richness they add to a community

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 9:49 AM

This should be free housing--okay, we'll pay the maintenance--for people with jobs exactly like mine.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 10:09 AM

Yes, 9:49, because only creative and cultural people can add richness to a community. Therefore they should be subsidized enough not to ever have to stoop as low as getting real jobs.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 10:14 AM

i would much rather see artists being supported so that they dont have to yet again flee a neighborhood they essentially founded because they get priced out.

a lot better than giving a few apartments to people who bring nothing to the communit y other than their poverty

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 10:19 AM

9:49, do you like to smell your own farts? Your smug levels are off the charts.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 10:40 AM

10:19,

The North Side was not "founded" by artists. Believe it or not, the neighborhood was around for over a century before any "creative types" ventured there.

Why is it that artists constantly assume there was no valid life form before their arrival?

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 12:36 PM

Dear Artists,

I quite enjoy pricing you out of neighborhoods, while spending less than 10% of my salary to do so.

Let me know where you’re moving next so I can buy some warehouses there.

Love,

Your friendly neighborhood i-banker

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 3:09 PM

Ugh, I dont like a large bank footprint here. I feel that banks don't add substance to neighborhoods like supermarkets and other infrastructure. I hope it doesnt turn into an empty ATM station.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 3:21 PM

there is less needed in that location. there are several supermarkets, ATM's, even a bank right around there.

services are really going to be needed over near bayard/roebling/union area. so many more condo's are coming on the market in the next year or so.

would be great to see at least one developer put some retail on the ground floor. ie: deli, dry cleaner, good coffee shop, wine store, maybe a small restaurant. would actually take a bank in that area.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 4:20 PM

Bricolage?!!?!?

Why do people keep hiring this act? I want to see new design standards in this city NOW! The barrage of mediocre and poorly crafted buildings are poisoning the high quality built environment in this city. Its a mentality issue. City officials need to step out of the city and visit places with much higher standards and then come back so they can clearly see that throwaway, generic Fedders architecture in NY is beginning to cause serious damage to our streetscapes in all 5 boroughs. In many ways, our solid, well crafted building stock is one if NYC's finest attributes, and it is being blemished by graceless, cheap and amateur structures that create an impression and impulse that they aren't worth caring for. Help NYC create better design guidelines. Raise a fuss and insist something be done!

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 4:53 PM

really, arguing about artists? again?

they'll sort themselves out. no need to prop them up. the good ones will make way more than the average NY'er with a college degree and a job anyway. and the bad ones need to take a good look in the mirror and change careers.

the guy who bought the condo directly above me in williamsburg is a gallery represented painter and works a freelancer on commercial projects too. he is definitely not broke and not leaving the neighborhood.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 4:55 PM

4:55 -- right on, i like your attitude. there are artists and "artists", and it only remains for time and dedication to sort them out.

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 7:09 PM

i'm calling bs on the new commerce. td bank of canada recently announced plans to buy cbh. the integration process will likely sideline any new branches for at least another year. cbh branches are notoriously expensive. the old ceo paid his wife's company $9mn per year to design them. that's part of the reason he's the old ceo and a canadian bank is about to own them...

Posted by: guest at November 15, 2007 8:37 PM

Quite possibly the worst rendering ever.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 8:44 AM

to the person who said that "artists essentially founded this neighborhood"... yeah and christopher columbus discovered america. this neighborhood was "founded" by hardworking immigrants long before you were born. pull your head out of your ass and move to east new york.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 3:25 PM

Ok retards -- the rendering will change, the neighbors will protest, the height will be scaled back, the building will happen. The artists will be forced out like roaches. The pro-build fascists will rant their rants. The artists will weep. The real original backbone -- the Polish and jews and Hispanicals -- will slowly die off.
And the rich? They'll always have their choice, cuz the world's their oyster.
"Get rich; you'll have more choice!"-G.W.Bush

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 5:41 PM

the design of this bank branch is perfectly respectable and generally fits within the vernacular of classic urban bank buildings -- a big, high-ceilinged room that holds the corner of a block. there is really nothing wrong with this design and it actually might look quite nice when it's done.

williamsburg should be happy that commerce isn't coming in and trying to build a drive-thru with a huge parking lot out front like they wanted to do on 5th ave in park slope.

and if you want to see how ugly and destructive a commerce bank can get, check out the branch on 36th Street and 4th ave in sunset park. it is a freakin' atrocity. a veritable crime against humanity.

Posted by: guest at November 16, 2007 8:34 PM

The design is elegnat in its simplicity and is consistent with the scale of the neghborhood. I think it is admirable that the developer did not try to come in and build another hideous tower. The developer will be allowed to build the very same project as of right in 2009, but he is willing to go through this process and provide an affordable housing component to meet the needs of the community. While I am generally anti-development I think this project seems reasonable and I think the developer is being fair with his requests.

Posted by: guest at November 27, 2007 10:24 AM

I think that Commerce Bank would be a welcome addition to Williamsburg!!!!

Posted by: guest at November 27, 2007 11:13 AM

"this should be 100% affordable housing (condos, not rentals), with below market financing provided by commerce bank. should be designated for artists, professors, and other creative/cultural personnel who would repay their subsidies by the richness they add to a community"

And another of you a-holes wrote "US ARTISTS"

Holy shit when did an occupation of a person make them so entitled.
Get a effin grip.

"A community we founded" also probably coming from a twenty something dipshit!

sheesh

da chef

Posted by: guest at December 5, 2007 12:26 PM