The Finger Rising
Curbed is reporting that the dreaded “Finger” building on North 7th Street in Williamsburg is underway, giant cranes and all. We’re far away in Connecticut but would sure appreciate it if someone wanted to send us a photo of the progress! North 7th Berry and Bedford [Bitnoots via Curbed]
Curbed is reporting that the dreaded “Finger” building on North 7th Street in Williamsburg is underway, giant cranes and all. We’re far away in Connecticut but would sure appreciate it if someone wanted to send us a photo of the progress!
North 7th Berry and Bedford [Bitnoots via Curbed]
Not sure if anyone has been there recently, but it’s only November 7th and that sucker is shooting up to the sky.
I live on N. 7th & Bedford, overlooking the city on the top (5th Floor) of my building and I can see the growth of this monstrosity from my window.
This puppy is already higher than my building and has aready taken out my view of the Chrysler Building. That sucks ass!!
I am not against development and “progress” but when something is just completely out of whack with the neighborhood, or when it’s going to bring an extra 1000 people to the L train, which is already insane in the mornings, then this can’t be good.
What a finger indeed!
critical shortage of housing, maybe. but not a critical shortage of $1 million condos as these presumably will be. look around. there’s LOTS of those to be had.
and even if there was a critical shortage of those, there are dozens of vacant buildings up and down the williamsburg waterfront that developers have been warehousing for years. if you need more housing, renovate and develop those. there is no need whatsoever for new 200-foot-plus buildings in wburg.
I do not see a pic of the building on Scarano’s
http://www.scaranoarchitects.com
Does anyone know where to see a pic of the building?
MC – The rendering shows a big building, no doubt. But it is not the building designed by the architect (Scarano). It is also located too close to Bedford Ave. in the rendering, and has (I think) a much bigger footprint than the actual Finger building will have.
Dave – I don’t disagree with your position. In this case, though, the controversy arises not just from NIMBYism, but from the developer’s end run around the zoning process. The recent rezoning leaves plenty of room for tall towers throughout Williamsburg, but specifically zoned this part of the neighborhood as a lower height and density area. Its also not at all clear that the building going up is legal under the old zoning either.
There’s such a critical shortage of housing. Unless we can expand the land mass through giant land fill techniques (e.g., Battery Park City), we have to tear down short buildings and construct towers in their place. We should be celebrating not fretting that so many people want to live in Williamsburg that a tall tower is being erected. I wish more people lived in the old urban cities rather than destroying farmland in the suburbs and exurbs.
“There’s a picture of what the neighbors think the building will look like at stopoursupersizing.com. Personally, I don’t think that rendering at all realistic in terms of design, scale or perspective, but…”
I don’t know – that rendering looks 4-5X taller than the rest of the buildings to me.
No pix, but – the crane is there (put up on Saturday, and boy is it big), two flatbeds of steel were delivered yesterday, and sidewalk bridges were going up on N7 this AM. They have finally taken down the N7 wall of the old building, so no more shell.
Anon – this Finger building is a 220′ tall tower which will rise up in the center of a block of 4 story (40′ or so) residential buildings. The opponents have called it the Finger Building beccause a) its a tall thin building and b) they feel the developer is giving the nabe the finger. The developer was able to do so by completing the construciton of the new building’s foundation before the new zoning went into effect (the new zoning for this block has a 50′ height limit).
There’s a picture of what the neighbors think the building will look like at stopoursupersizing.com. Personally, I don’t think that rendering at all realistic in terms of design, scale or perspective, but…
What is a “Finger” building anyway?