Entry from April 12, 2006
Finger Building
The "Finger Building" is the large condo building at North 7th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Why "Finger Building"? Because the building looks like a finger? Because the developers have given the neighborhood "the finger"? Maybe the answer to that is a little of both.
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/08/16/giant_crane_rises_to_give_burg_the_finger.php
Giant Crane Rises to Give 'Burg the Finger
Tuesday, August 16, 2005, by Joshua
(...)
Why on earth would one need such a large crane in the 'Burg? Best we can tell, it has arrived to do some heavy lifting for the yet another Scarano & Associates project, a lux condo affair at 142-144 North 8th Street and 139-141 North 7th Street. The building, aka "The Finger," will reportedly house 42 units and is to be 222-feet tall, or as its detractors might say, "Fucking tall."
http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/394107p-334158c.html
'Finger' bldg. going pinkie?
BY HUGH SON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Call it the "Little Finger" building.
Locked in a nasty legal dispute with a next-door neighbor, the developer of Williamsburg's controversial "Finger Building" condo has submitted new plans that would make it six stories shorter than originally planned, the Daily News has learned.
Developer Mendel Brach's revamped plans make the 144 N. Eighth St. project 10 stories tall - much smaller than the original 16-story, 220-foot height that threatened to stick out like a sore thumb in the low-rise area.
(...)
Originally published on February 24, 2006
http://www.brooklyndowntownstar.com/StoryDisplay.asp?PID=4&NewsStoryID=3342
Dateline : Thursday, March 23, 2006
If a Crane Falls in Brooklyn...
By Phil Guie
(...)
One DOB official who did not wish to be quoted by the paper said that the 144 North 8th Street project - nicknamed "The Finger Building" because of its shape and the way it rudely contrasts with the much shorter buildings in the surrounding neighborhood - was "very, very unpopular with the community."
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006-03/local/we-made-it-ma-williamsburg-named-one-of-state-rsquo-s-ldquo-seven-to-save-rdquo
From the roof of the Shoe Polish Building—one of the first large post-industrial structures in the neighborhood to turn into a residential tower—the character of the area was clear: industrial factory buildings, some nicer than others, with swaths of "walk to work" low lying working class housing stock. But from 10 or so stories up, the rising skeleton of the luxury "finger building" on North 7th, and the almost completed tower on McCarren Park looked even more egregious than from the ground, as if they would replicate the awkward green presence of the Citicorp building in Long Island City.
31 August 2003, New York Times, pg. CY6:
The T-shaped structure, which was built in 1959 as a Cunard Line freight terminal, has 190,000 square feet of exhibition space on a single floor. The finger building, the stern of the T. juts out about 750 feet over the river and is ringed by a catwalk.
(Pier 94 in the West 50's -- ed.)
Why "Finger Building"? Because the building looks like a finger? Because the developers have given the neighborhood "the finger"? Maybe the answer to that is a little of both.
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/08/16/giant_crane_rises_to_give_burg_the_finger.php
Giant Crane Rises to Give 'Burg the Finger
Tuesday, August 16, 2005, by Joshua
(...)
Why on earth would one need such a large crane in the 'Burg? Best we can tell, it has arrived to do some heavy lifting for the yet another Scarano & Associates project, a lux condo affair at 142-144 North 8th Street and 139-141 North 7th Street. The building, aka "The Finger," will reportedly house 42 units and is to be 222-feet tall, or as its detractors might say, "Fucking tall."
http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/394107p-334158c.html
'Finger' bldg. going pinkie?
BY HUGH SON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Call it the "Little Finger" building.
Locked in a nasty legal dispute with a next-door neighbor, the developer of Williamsburg's controversial "Finger Building" condo has submitted new plans that would make it six stories shorter than originally planned, the Daily News has learned.
Developer Mendel Brach's revamped plans make the 144 N. Eighth St. project 10 stories tall - much smaller than the original 16-story, 220-foot height that threatened to stick out like a sore thumb in the low-rise area.
(...)
Originally published on February 24, 2006
http://www.brooklyndowntownstar.com/StoryDisplay.asp?PID=4&NewsStoryID=3342
Dateline : Thursday, March 23, 2006
If a Crane Falls in Brooklyn...
By Phil Guie
(...)
One DOB official who did not wish to be quoted by the paper said that the 144 North 8th Street project - nicknamed "The Finger Building" because of its shape and the way it rudely contrasts with the much shorter buildings in the surrounding neighborhood - was "very, very unpopular with the community."
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006-03/local/we-made-it-ma-williamsburg-named-one-of-state-rsquo-s-ldquo-seven-to-save-rdquo
From the roof of the Shoe Polish Building—one of the first large post-industrial structures in the neighborhood to turn into a residential tower—the character of the area was clear: industrial factory buildings, some nicer than others, with swaths of "walk to work" low lying working class housing stock. But from 10 or so stories up, the rising skeleton of the luxury "finger building" on North 7th, and the almost completed tower on McCarren Park looked even more egregious than from the ground, as if they would replicate the awkward green presence of the Citicorp building in Long Island City.
31 August 2003, New York Times, pg. CY6:
The T-shaped structure, which was built in 1959 as a Cunard Line freight terminal, has 190,000 square feet of exhibition space on a single floor. The finger building, the stern of the T. juts out about 750 feet over the river and is ringed by a catwalk.
(Pier 94 in the West 50's -- ed.)
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