Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, Brooklyn

From 1927-1929 the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower was built in downtown Brooklyn, New York. Built in the Art Deco style, the building remains the tallest building in Brooklyn today. According to nyc-architecture.com/BKN/BKN005.htm, the address is One Hanson Place, at the corner of Ashland Place, near the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, across from Atlantic Terminal Mall in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. The location of the building is at the hub of a busy neighborhood. The building stands 512-foot, 34-story. For years it served as a bank and office building for dentists. The marble banking hall on the ground floor has 63-foot vaulted ceilings, 40-foot windows and elaborate mosaics. Its most outstanding features are the cooper crowning dome, and its four-faced clock which was the largest in the world in 1929, and held the title until 1962. The dome was built as reverence to the other Brooklyn Williamsburgh Bank building, on Broadway in Williamsburg. Other banks have owned the building tower, but to Brooklyn natives, it remains the Williamsburgh Savings Bank.

The Tower has an observation deck that was once opened to the public. From the deck you could see for miles, Fort Greene Park and the Williamsburg Bridge, the red brick building of the 1894 Baptist Temple, the dome of the Dime Savings Bank on DeKalb Avenue and Fulton Street built in 1907 with giant Mercury dimes at the top of the Corinthian columns. Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, stretch off into the distance, along with the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. One can see the large LIRR train yard between Flatbush and Vanderbilt Avenues along Atlantic Ave. Pacific Street, to the north of the train yard, featured a New York Daily News printing plant until the 1980s. Flatbush Avenue runs southeast to Grand Army Plaza.

Today the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower has been reborn into 189 luxury residences, most with views of New York Harbor, and the Brooklyn and Manhattan skyline. One Hanson Place has amenities which include 24 hour doorman, gym, children's playroom, Sky Lounge and Terrace. According to streeteasy.com/nyc/building/1-hanson-place-brooklyn, a four bedroom, 3,243 ft listed for $4,775,000. A one bedroom 722 ft listed for $595,000.

In a January 2009 article by The New York Observer, the recession has rendered the building's few unsold condos up for rent. Nineteen units are asking between $3,400 and $4,900 monthly. Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds and the Dermot Company own the building. The Observer reported in a January 2008 article the basketball star Magic Johnson was a partner.

The NY Daily News reported Johnson had problems over hiring nonunion workers, resisting the tendency at luxury city residences. The building's 10 doormen, porters and other workers must pay $300 a month for health insurance for each family member. Magic Johnson turns 50 years old on August 14. He's best known as an American professional basketball player who was a point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. Johnson has been an advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention and safe sex, as well as a philanthropist.

Work Cited:
Eldridge, Earle (November 8, 2004). "Rebounding from basketball court to boardroom". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/educate/college/careers/profile42.htm. Retrieved on 2009-02-23.
Haire, Thomas (May 1, 2003). "Do You Believe in 'Magic'?". Response Magazine (Questex Media Group, Inc). http://www.responsemagazine.com/responsemag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=57850. Retrieved on 2009-04-07.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/10/29/2008-10-29_union_fury_over_magic_johnsons_luxury_to.html