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The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower, also known as One Hanson Place, is a skyscraper in the Fort Greene neighborhood of
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Located at the northeast corner of Ashland Place and Hanson Place near Downtown Brooklyn, the tower is one of Brooklyn's architectural icons. The tower was designed by
Halsey, McCormack and Helmer Mancini•Duffy is a New York City-based architecture and interior design firm. Mancini•Duffy was formed by the 1986 merger of Ralph Mancini Associates, Inc. (established in 1981) and Duffy Inc. (established in 1955); in 2011, it acquired certain ...
and constructed from 1927 to 1929 as the new headquarters for the
Williamsburgh Savings Bank The Williamsburgh Savings Bank was a financial institution in Brooklyn, New York from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. The bank was incorporated in 1851 under legislation passed by the New York State Assembly. The bank continued to ope ...
. From the time of its construction until 2009, One Hanson Place was the tallest building in Brooklyn at 41 stories and tall. The building's main entrance is through a large arch on Hanson Place. At ground level, the tower is clad with limestone above a granite dado; three arched windows on Ashland Place overlook the banking room. Above the sixth story, the building is faced in brick with terracotta decoration. A series of setbacks taper to a
clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...
with faces measuring across, while the roof is a dome evocative of the bank's previous headquarters at 175 Broadway. Inside is an entrance vestibule and lobby with ornately decorated marble and metalwork. The banking room, measuring with a ceiling high, is arranged similarly to the parts of a
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...
, with a
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
,
aisles Aisles is a six-piece progressive rock band originally from Santiago, Chile. The group was formed in 2001 by brothers Germán (guitar) and Luis Vergara (keyboards), and childhood friend Rodrigo Sepúlveda (guitar). Later on, it expanded to incl ...
, and
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...
. There is also a lobby in the basement, leading to Atlantic Terminal and the
Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station The Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station (formerly Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street station) is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the BMT Fourth Avenue Line, the BMT Brighton Line and the IRT Eastern Parkway Line, located at ...
, and a mezzanine-level ladies' lounge, overlooking the banking room. In the 19th century, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank occupied three separate headquarters in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a Neighborhoods in Brooklyn, neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Bedford–Stuyvesant to the s ...
. The bank's officers decided to construct a skyscraper near Downtown Brooklyn for its new headquarters in the mid-1920s. The bank occupied the lowest floors when the building opened on April 1, 1929. The remaining stories were rented as offices. By the late 20th century, much of the building contained dentists' offices. The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
designated the tower's exterior as a city landmark in 1977 and similarly designated the interiors of the lobby and banking spaces in 1996. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank became part of
HSBC Bank USA HSBC Bank USA, National Association, an American subsidiary of multinational company HSBC, is a bank with its operational head office in New York City and its nominal head office in McLean, Virginia (as designated on its charter). HSBC Bank USA, ...
through several mergers, and HSBC sold the building in 2004. The building's upper stories were converted to luxury condominium apartments from 2005 to 2007, while the banking hall became an event space.


Site

The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower is at 1 Hanson Place, at the northeast corner with Ashland Place, in the Fort Greene neighborhood of the
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...
of
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It occupies the southwestern section of a rectangular
city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within t ...
bounded by Ashland Place to the west, Hanson Place to the south, St. Felix Street to the east, and Lafayette Avenue to the north. The rectangular
land lot In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the same thing) in ...
covers , with a
frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of on Ashland Place and on Hanson Place. Many of the surrounding buildings are row houses designed in the Italianate style. The Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church is on the same block to the east, and the
Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...
is just to the north. An entrance to the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
's
Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station The Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station (formerly Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street station) is a New York City Subway station complex shared by the BMT Fourth Avenue Line, the BMT Brighton Line and the IRT Eastern Parkway Line, located at ...
, serving the , is inside the building. The site is also near the
Atlantic Terminal mall Atlantic Terminal and Atlantic Center are two shopping malls located on Atlantic Avenue surrounded by Hanson Place, Fort Greene Place and Flatbush Avenue in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, New York City, near Downtown Brooklyn. Atlantic Term ...
, the Atlantic Terminal station of the
Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...
(LIRR), and the
Barclays Center Barclays Center is a multi-purpose list of indoor arenas, indoor arena in the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty o ...
arena. The site is near the historic split of Jamaica Road (now
Atlantic Avenue Atlantic Avenue may refer to: Highways * Atlantic Avenue (Boston) in Massachusetts * Atlantic Avenue (New York City) in Brooklyn and Queens, New York * Florida State Road 806 in Palm Beach County, locally known as Atlantic Avenue * Atlantic Avenue ...
) and the Flatbush Turnpike (now Flatbush Avenue). It overlooks
Times Plaza Times Plaza is the historical name for the intersection of Flatbush Avenue, Fourth Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn. The area came to be called Times Plaza for the nearby offices of the Brooklyn Daily Times.' ...
, the intersection of Flatbush, Atlantic, and Fourth Avenues in Downtown Brooklyn. This site had grown into a commercial center by the early 20th century. Prior to the tower's construction, there were eight buildings on the lot. A small part of the site was previously owned by the Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church. Despite its location near the subway and LIRR terminal, the site had not attracted any major business before the tower was built, likely in part because of the proximity of the Fort Greene Meat Market.


Architecture

The tower was designed by the architectural firm Halsey, McCormack and Helmer (now
Mancini Duffy Mancini•Duffy is a New York City-based architecture and interior design firm. Mancini•Duffy was formed by the 1986 merger of Ralph Mancini Associates, Inc. (established in 1981) and Duffy Inc. (established in 1955); in 2011, it acquired certain ...
). The building was constructed from 1927 to 1929 in a modernized
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
- Romanesque style. It was named for its original client, the
Williamsburgh Savings Bank The Williamsburgh Savings Bank was a financial institution in Brooklyn, New York from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. The bank was incorporated in 1851 under legislation passed by the New York State Assembly. The bank continued to ope ...
, which in turn is named for its original headquarters in
Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...
. Chief architect Robert Helmer wrote at the time of the building's opening that he wanted it "to be regarded as a cathedral dedicated to the furtherance of thrift and prosperity." The
New York City Department of City Planning The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...
cites One Hanson Place as containing 41 stories, while
Emporis.com Emporis GmbH was a real estate data mining company that was headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022. On 12 Sept ...
and The Skyscraper Center give a figure of 42 stories. Due to the height of the five-story banking room, as well as empty spaces on the topmost floors, the building has been described as having as few as 34 stories. The building measures tall to its pinnacle; this made it the tallest building in Brooklyn from 1929 until 2009. However, the building was not the borough's tallest structure for most of its history; that record was held by a transmitter built atop the nearby
Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of th ...
in 1938. The tower remained the tallest building on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
until 1989, with the completion of
One Court Square One Court Square, also known as the Citigroup Building, is a 50-story office tower in Long Island City, Queens across the East River from Manhattan in New York City. It was completed in 1989 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP for Citigroup. The ...
in
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, and the tallest building in Brooklyn until 2009, with the topping-out of the Brooklyner.


Form and facade

There are about 935 windows on the facade. One Hanson Place occupies its full site at ground level. Its upper stories contain a balanced, though not symmetrical, vertical
massing Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building. Massing in architectural theory Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
of staggered setbacks in brick and architectural terracotta. These setbacks are included to comply with the
1916 Zoning Resolution The 1916 Zoning Resolution in New York City was the first citywide zoning code in the United States. The zoning resolution reflected both borough and local interests, and was proposed after the Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan ...
. For most of the 20th century, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower was the only high-rise in the surrounding area. This, along with the fact that the building was near the intersection of five streets, often resulted in the intensification of wind gusts around the building.


Base

On the lower stories, One Hanson Place's
elevations The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
are designed symmetrically around the axes of the ground-story banking room. At ground level is a highly polished dado veneered with veined and colored Minnesota granite. Near the corner is an inscription in all capital letters:
To Our Depositors Past and Present This Building Is Dedicated. By Their Industry and Thrift They Have Built Homes and Educated Children, Opened the Door of Opportunity to Youth and Made Age Comfortable Independent and Dignified. By Those Sturdy Virtues They Have Obtained Their Ambitions, Swept Aside the Petty Distinctions of Class and Birth and So Maintained the True Spirit of American Democracy.
Above the dado, the first six stories of One Hanson Place are clad with limestone and contain arched windows into the banking room. Embedded in the wall are square bas-reliefs, one on the right of a burglar, whom the depositor understood would be thwarted by the massive vault doors in the basement. The center of the Ashland Place elevation contains three arched windows overlooking the ground-story banking room, which measure tall. The center of the Hanson Place elevation has a large arch similar to those on Ashland Place. The space beneath the Hanson Place arch contains three round-arched doorways, separated by round columns. The Hanson Place arch was described as measuring wide by tall. The frames of the large windows are ornately decorated. Each of the primary vertical mullions are half-round columns; the
capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
above these mullions depict
bucrania Bucranium (plural ''bucrania''; Latin, from Greek ''βουκράνιον'', referring to the skull of an ox) was a form of carved decoration commonly used in Classical architecture. The name is generally considered to originate with the practic ...
and pelicans. The windows contain tinted cast-glass panes made by the Thomas Jones Decorative Glass Company. Other carved details represent values of thrift. These include beehives; squirrels that store nuts; the head of
Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...
, god of commerce; wise owls; and seated lions whose paws protect the bank's lockbox, with the bank's monogram on the lock haft. The four continents are also represented in the windows' carved frames. The windows' ornate decorations contrasted with the spare ornamentation of the
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
on which the arches rested. At the physical sixth story (labeled as floor 2), above the large arches, are smaller round-arched windows separated by polished-granite columns. A band of
corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...
s runs above this story, delineating the transition to the upper section of the tower.


Upper stories

Above the sixth story, each elevation of the building's facade is articulated by vertical
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
that rise ten stories. The seventh through 16th stories of the building (floors 3 through 12) are divided into ten
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
along Ashland Place and five bays along Hanson Place. Each bay contains two windows per story; the center six bays on Ashland Place are recessed. The 17th story (floor 13) contains round-arched windows, above which is a horizontal band of terracotta and a setback. Above this story, the massing of One Hanson Place rises in an asymmetrical cruciform shape. Contrasting limestone trim is used to distinguish each setback. At the 30th story (floor 26) is an open loggia of arched windows, topped by another horizontal band of terracotta. The roof contains an abandoned public observation deck at the 30th-story setback. This setback is approximately high. Visitors could only access the deck by obtaining a card from the building's security guards, which had to be returned when the visitor departed. As late as the 1970s, the observation deck was open to the public during the middle of the day on weekdays, and visitors did not need to pay admission. The observation deck was closed in the late 1970s. Despite the building's prominence, bank officials in 1989 could not recall anyone having ever jumped to their death from the observatory. Above the 30th story, One Hanson Place's massing shrinks to a square tower with large clock faces on each side. Corresponding to the 34th through 36th stories (floors 30–32), the clock faces originally contained bright red neon tubes. The clock faces measure across. When the clock was first illuminated in 1928, the ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' claimed the clock faces could be seen from thirty miles away. At the time of the building's construction, the clock was the largest in New York City and among the largest in the world. The center of each clock face is above the street. Each hour hand measures long while each minute hand is long. The hour hands each weigh and the minute hands weigh . There are dots in place of numerals. Twelve lamps illuminate each clock face at night. During the mid-20th century, many of the borough's residents set their wristwatches to the clock. The building is topped by an octagonal drum, which supports the dome above it. One Hanson Place's Renaissance-style dome was inspired by that atop the bank's previous headquarters at 175 Broadway, which had been designed by
George B. Post George Browne Post (December 15, 1837 – November 28, 1913) was an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition. He was recognized as a master of modern American architecture as well as being instrumental in the birth of the skyscra ...
. The architects' original plans did not include the dome. However, bank officials required the dome to be included; as Helmer noted: "Dome was required by Bank over our dead protests". The dome was illuminated at night by red, amber, and green lights. At the time of the building's opening, these lights faded into each other, running a full cycle every four minutes. To accommodate the lighting system, the dome was made of movable louvers.


Interior

One Hanson Place has a gross floor area of and is divided into 197 ownership condominiums, 179 of which are residential apartments. There is also a retail space spanning in the former banking room, in the basement, and on a mezzanine level. The most ornate part of the interior was the banking space, with a five-story-tall banking room running parallel to Ashland Place. To the south is the building's lobby and the Hanson Place entrance vestibule. The main lobby, extending the width of the Hanson Place frontage, is divided by
segmental arch A segmental arch is a type of arch with a circular arc of less than 180 degrees. It is sometimes also called a scheme arch. The segmental arch is one of the strongest arches because it is able to resist thrust. To prevent failure, a segmental arc ...
es into eleven bays: three to the west, three to the center, and five to the east. Above the lobby was a mezzanine with a ladies' lounge, overlooking the banking room. The building has a steel
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
, though this is concealed on the lower stories by cast stonework. The superstructure is arranged around the columns in the banking room; the use of a portal frame enabled the construction of the office stories above.
Rene Paul Chambellan Rene Paul Chambellan (September 15, 1893 – November 29, 1955) was an American sculptor who specialized in architectural sculpture. He was also one of the foremost practitioners of what was then called the "French Modern Style" and has subseque ...
created much of the sculptural work for the bank's interior. Masonry and metalwork are used extensively in the bank's interior. The metal included brass, bronze, copper, silver, and both cast and wrought steel. Also present are 22 types of marble, ranging from red to green to purple. Barely any wood was used except for flagpoles in the banking room. The ceilings are made of plaster with mosaic finishes. Within the banking room and its ladies' lounge, mosaics and huge tinted windows contain silhouetted iron cutouts with vignettes of figures such as workers and students. Cox, Nostrand & Gunnison manufactured the banking interiors' lighting fixtures.


Lobby

On the south side of the ground story, leading from the center of the Hanson Place frontage, is an entrance vestibule. The doors from the south lead from Hanson Place. Three sets of doors lead north from the entrance vestibule to the middle of the main lobby. The central set is a revolving door added after the building's completion, while the flanking doors are part of the original design. Above both sets of doors are metal panels, each depicting an arcade of seven ornately decorated arches. In addition, the west and east walls contain metal grilles with floral decorations. The entrance vestibule connects with the central section of the lobby, which comprises the fourth through sixth bays from west. The lobby floor is made of marble. The center of the floor is elaborately decorated with Cosmati-style motifs. Above the south doors are metal panels depicting arcades, similar to those in the vestibule. To the north, three double metal doors lead to the banking room. Carved figures on these doors represent six types of tradesmen who might open accounts at the bank. The floral decorations on the doors represent the months of the year. The westernmost three bays lead to the safe-deposit area in the basement. The easternmost five bays lead to the elevators, as well as a staircase down to the basement lobby and up to the former ladies' lounge. The walls are made of marble. The ceiling's segmental arches divide the ceiling into 11 saucer vaults. Each vault has tesserae mosaics that vary from gray-blue to intense turquoise and ultramarine. These mosaic tiles, forming the background color of each vault, represent the sky. Gold stars are overlaid onto the sky. Globe-shaped lighting fixtures are placed in alternating vaults. The eastern section of the lobby contains five elevators, whose doors originally contained representations of four seasons, four types of arts, and four
classical element Classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Tibet, and India had simil ...
s. Also placed on the doors were depictions of several skilled workers. The decorative elevator doors have since been replaced with plain anodized metal doors. Atop the directory are a winged hourglass and an analog clock, flanked by four gilded figures. The stairways up to the ladies' lounge and down to the basement lobby contain marble walls.


Banking room

The banking room's ceiling is high. Though the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
cites the room's footprint as measuring about , other sources give dimensions of , including the ladies' lounge on the south wall. The banking room is placed asymmetrically in relation to the ground-story footprint. The wider dimension is parallel to Ashland Place and, except for a service alley to the north, is centered on the Ashland Place windows. The interior layout was patterned after that of a
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...
. The room's central
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
, for clients and bank officers, was flanked to the east and west by
aisles Aisles is a six-piece progressive rock band originally from Santiago, Chile. The group was formed in 2001 by brothers Germán (guitar) and Luis Vergara (keyboards), and childhood friend Rodrigo Sepúlveda (guitar). Later on, it expanded to incl ...
with tellers' desks. At the north end of the banking room, officers worked in a
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...
separated from the rest of the space by a low parapet. At the southwestern corner of the banking room, another low parapet delineated the new-accounts area, which had a fireplace. The former mezzanine-level ladies' lounge is above the lobby, with a
balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...
overlooking the south end of the banking room.


= Floors and furniture

= The floors are paved in multicolored marble. The nave is arranged in a grid of 33 Cosmati rectangles (eleven bays of squares from north to south and three bays from west to east). Three general designs are used in the marble floor. Low parapets run between the nave and aisles, doubling as the tellers' counters. There are metal grilles with bulletproof glass above each counter, decorated with figures of animals and the zodiac. The tops of the tellers' grilles are crested; at regular intervals, the grilles contain finials with depictions of eagles. Originally, the banking room contained a circular information desk supported by multicolored columns. The new-accounts area at the southwestern corner and the officers' area to the north were shielded by screens. Additionally, there were two circular tables with glass tops and marble
colonnette A colonnette is a small slender column, usually decorative, which supports a beam or lintel. Colonettes have also been used to refer to a feature of furnishings such as a dressing table and case clock, and even studied by archeologists in Roman ...
s.


= Walls

= The lowest part of the banking room's walls is made of yellow marble and contains ventilation grilles with griffins flanking a lozenge. The rest of the walls are made of cast stone. The southern part of the west wall contains a fireplace with orange colonnettes and a decorative
lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...
. The west wall contains small arched windows at ground level facing Ashland Place, decorated with lions, centaurs, and various animals. Above are the massive arched windows. To the south are three round arches from the lobby, supported by marble columns with sculptures depicting industry and commerce. Above is the ladies' lounge, which is designed to resemble an extension of the nave. The western and eastern walls of the lounge have ornate marble columns, which support lintels with round columns above. Opposite the ladies' lounge, on the north wall, is a mosaic artwork depicting the borough of Brooklyn. The work depicts the Williamsburgh Savings Bank surrounded by landmarks and motifs representing Brooklyn and its history. These include 17th-century explorer
Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States. In 1607 and 160 ...
's ship '' Half Moon''; five historic towns that were later merged into Brooklyn; and the coats of arms of
New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...
, British New York, and the City of New York. It was installed by Ravenna Mosaics and is attributed to "Wagner" of Germany. The north and south walls also contain balustrades with analog clocks recessed into them.


= Ceilings

= The aisles and nave are separated by four cast-stone piers, each consisting of a square shaft with semicircular columns protruding from each side. Each pier measures four stories high to its capital, while the diagonal steel beams behind each capital rise another story. The tops of these piers contain carved capitals; the carvings on the capitals depict elderly figures in retirement, representing "reasons to save". Round-arched openings span each aisle, connecting the pier with the nearest wall. Above these openings, taller arches with
keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...
rise to the ceiling. The side aisles contain barrel-vaulted ceilings. Circular ventilation grilles are placed at the centers of the aisles' ceiling vaults, as well as above the officers' area to the north. The ceiling above the nave and above the banking room's north and south ends consists of cast-stone barrel vaults, outlined by square escutcheons and raised stone bands. The nave's ceiling vault also contains a blue-and-gold glass mosaic depicting an astrological motif. The mosaic, created by Angelo Magnanti, is placed on a steel mesh panel and is hung from the steel superstructure. A large chandelier with floral ornament and glass cylinder is suspended from the middle of the nave. Four smaller chandeliers of similar design are suspended above the aisles, and the ceiling of the ladies' lounge contains a circular ventilation grille and a chandelier.


Basement

The basement lobby is a central space accessed from the eastern part of the ground-level lobby. The basement's lobby contains a terrazzo floor laid in a grid pattern. The walls are made of marble; the west wall contains a stairway up to the main elevator lobby. The plaster ceiling is a saucer vault containing a central chandelier with six arms. The basement lobby leads to the bank's vaults and the subway lobby. There were three levels of basements for the bank's vaults. Originally, there were 10,000 drawers for depositors in the main vault. The depositors' vault was sealed by doors, measuring wide and thick, which were open for inspection during banking hours. Three such doors existed in total. The steel doors were removed in the 2000s when the banking hall and basement were converted into a commercial space. The subway lobby has a plaster ceiling and revolving doors flanked by metal fences. Outside the subway lobby, a passageway connects directly with the LIRR's Atlantic Terminal and the subway. As part of a 2017 proposal to renovate the lower stories, an escalator was added between the basement and banking room.


Upper stories

Immediately above the banking room were three levels of offices for the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, three in front of the banking room, and four behind it. These housed executive offices and bank transactions. The remainder of One Hanson Place originally contained rental office spaces. To maximize rental space, the architects spaced the
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
's columns as far apart as possible. Each story had an area of . When the building was used as an office tower, the highest usable story was floor 29, right below the clock tower. At the time of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower's construction, the elevators in typical high-rise buildings were clustered around a central core. However, the ground-story banking room prevented the construction of a central core. The tower's elevators were instead placed at the southeast corner, connecting both to the office stories and to the LIRR/subway stations in the basement. Twelve elevators served the upper stories. One of these was a private elevator used by the Williamsburgh Savings Bank's president. In 2006–2007, the offices were converted into 176 apartments with 138 floor plans, ranging from studios to
penthouse apartment A penthouse is an apartment or unit on the highest floor of an apartment building, condominium, hotel or tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distingui ...
s with over . The units had a common room with a terrace, as well as a playroom and a shared business center. One example of a larger unit is a three-bedroom apartment on the 28th story with beamed ceilings, wooden floors, and nine windows on two elevations. Some of the penthouse units cover a full story, and there is also a duplex unit with a terrace leading out onto the former observation deck. The largest unit is unit 26A, a penthouse on the 30th-story setback with four bedrooms. Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects redesigned the penthouse for its resident over eight years, combining some bedrooms and rearranging other spaces.


History

The Williamsburgh Savings Bank was chartered in 1851. The bank was originally housed in the basement of a church at
Bedford Avenue Bedford Avenue is the longest street in Brooklyn, New York City, stretching and 132 blocks, from Manhattan Avenue (Brooklyn), Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint south to Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Sheepshead Ba ...
and South 3rd Street in Williamsburg; it had 158 depositors and $15,000 in assets. In 1854, it relocated to its own building across the street. In the aftermath of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, the bank's holdings grew considerably, and the domed 175 Broadway headquarters was constructed from 1870 to 1875. Despite expansions in 1906 and 1923, the 175 Broadway headquarters was no longer sufficient for the bank's needs by the 1920s. The bank had 139,000 depositors and $212 million in assets in 1928, making it the fourth-largest in the U.S. Each savings bank in New York had been limited to one location until 1923, when the state legislature passed a law allowing savings banks to construct branches. In March 1926, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank's Building Committee submitted an application to the New York superintendent of banks to build a branch in
Crown Heights, Brooklyn Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Empire Boulevard/East New Yo ...
. Three months later, the bank decided to instead build a headquarters near Downtown Brooklyn's transit hub. The 175 Broadway building was to be retained as a branch.


Development

During 1926, an anonymous buyer acquired lots on 1–9 Hanson Place and 135–149 Ashland Place in Downtown Brooklyn. This required a total of 29 transactions. After the '' Times-Union'' reported the buyer's identity as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank in October 1926, the bank announced it would open a new headquarters at the site. Upon hearing of the plans, the City Savings Bank and the Dime Savings Bank of New York, which operated branches in Downtown Brooklyn, expressed opposition and claimed the Williamsburgh Savings Bank was "invading" their territory. Though they were joined by six other banks, New York's superintendent of banks moved to allow the Williamsburgh to open a Downtown Brooklyn branch. The approval was contingent on the fact that a temporary branch, which was planned to open at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, would shut down when the permanent building was finished. Bank officials considered several plans, including a bank without any office space. Ultimately, bank officials decided to construct a combination bank and office tower, which was originally planned to be 16 stories tall. The William Kennedy Construction Company was awarded the general contract for the new building in December 1926, at which point the building was planned to cost $3 million. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank acquired land from the Hanson Place Church the same month, and a chimney for the church was integrated into the new bank building. In January 1927, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank opened a temporary location at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues. Later that month, Halsey, McCormack and Helmer filed plans for the new edifice with the city's Bureau of Buildings. The department rejected the original plans, saying it violated the provisions of the 1916 Zoning Resolution. This pushed back the original 1928 completion date by up to six months. By August 1927, the Kennedy Construction Company was excavating the site to a depth of . At the time, the bank's holdings had just surpassed $200 million. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower's cornerstone was laid on April 9, 1928, and the superstructure was
topped out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
by the end of July 1928. Managing agent R. M. Dinsmore began renting out the space that year, and the clock atop the building started operating in December. The building's construction spurred the development of other buildings nearby even before it was completed. These included the
Brooklyn Paramount Theater The Brooklyn Paramount Theater is a former movie palace at 1 University Plaza at the intersection of Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues in downtown Brooklyn, New York. Opened in 1928, the building has been owned by Long Island University (LIU) since 19 ...
and several office buildings, as well as apartment buildings on Hanson Place.


Bank and office use


1920s to 1970s

Four hundred people attended a reception for the new bank building on March 28, 1929. At the time, 75 percent of the space had been leased. The banking offices opened on April 1, and the building was 85 percent occupied by the time the office stories officially opened the next month. The office space was particularly popular among insurance companies, with four such firms having signed leases there by June. Despite the
Wall Street Crash The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
later that year, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower was 94 percent occupied at the end of 1929. The new building helped increase the Williamsburgh Savings Bank's business; by the bank's 85th anniversary in 1936, there were 165,000 depositors from all U.S. states and many countries. Among the tenants who signed leases in the 1930s were the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the United Personal Loan Corporation, and Catholic newspaper ''The Tablet''. A life-insurance sales department opened at both of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank's branches in 1941. J. J. Roehrig of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank took over as the building's manager in 1943. During World War II, the building's manager instituted a policy in which only the first four floors would remain illuminated during citywide blackout orders. Toward the end of the war, in 1945, an office for discharged service members opened within the building. In the 1950s, the tower's tenants included architect Henry V. Murphy. As Brooklyn's tallest building, the tower was also used for displays; for example, during
Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...
, some rooms were lit so the pattern on the facade resembled a cross. The clock faces were cleaned extensively in 1957. By the 1960s, the former ladies' lounge next to the banking room was converted into a mail room. The banking hall also hosted events such as an
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
exhibit by the
Long Island Historical Society The Center for Brooklyn History (CBH, formerly known as the Brooklyn Historical Society) is a museum, library, and educational center founded in 1863 that preserves and encourages the study of Brooklyn's 400-year history. The center's Romanesque R ...
in 1976. The observation deck on floor 26, which had been open to the public since the building opened, was shuttered in the late 1970s. The
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(LPC) designated the exterior of the building as a
New York City landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
on November 15, 1977. One of the bank's vice presidents said: "We did not seek this landmark status but we're rather proud of our building." The designation then had to be approved by the New York City Board of Estimate, but this approval was held up when U.S. representative
Fred Richmond Frederick William Richmond (November 15, 1923 – December 28, 2019) was an American politician who served as a Democratic four-term member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1975 to 1982. Early life Richmond was ...
accused the Williamsburgh Savings Bank of participating in
redlining In the United States, redlining is a discriminatory practice in which services (financial and otherwise) are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as "hazardous" to investment; these neighborhoods have signif ...
by refusing to give mortgages to residents of poorer neighborhoods. The Board of Estimate finally approved the landmark designation in March 1978, when the bank pledged to allocate $10 million for loans and mortgages to Brooklyn residents. The building was also eligible for listing on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
(NRHP) and could receive tax abatements if it were added to the NRHP. The LPC added the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower to the Brooklyn Academy of Music Historic District on September 26, 1978.


1980s to early 2000s

By the 1980s, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower contained many dentists' offices. The building also contained executive offices for the Green-Wood Cemetery, as well as the production offices of ''The Tablet'' and one story for data-processing equipment. The Williamsburgh started replacing windows in 1983 after finding that some were severely deteriorated. This move required approval from the LPC, but the bank did not request such approval, saying it did not want to delay the window replacement. The
Republic National Bank Republic New York Corporation was the holding company for Republic National Bank of New York, Safra Republic Holdings, and Safra Republic Bank. The company was controlled by billionaire Edmond Safra, who was killed in a fire in his Monte Carlo p ...
acquired the Williamsburgh Savings Bank and its branches in 1986. Republic announced plans to renovate the lobby, banking room, mechanical systems, and facade in 1988, in advance of the building's 60th anniversary. The building was rebranded One Hanson Place during this time. The project was completed that September. Following the completion of the renovation, an LPC staff member contacted the bank after reading news reports of the project. The staff member found that, while most of the work was confined to the interior (and thus did not require approval), 906 of the exterior windows had been replaced. The resulting replacement was the largest violation of New York City's landmarks law at the time. Instead of forcing Republic to uninstall all of the windows, the LPC ruled that the bank only needed to install muntins over the replacement windows. At the end of 1989, the Republic Savings Bank merged with the Manhattan Savings Bank. The building's name was not changed, and residents unofficially continued to call it the Williamsburgh Tower. By then, dentists occupied most of the building, with over 100 dentists taking up 70 percent of the office space; the dental office on floor 29 was the highest accessible point in Brooklyn. ''The New York Times'' said the building had "one attraction that even the
World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
and the
Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
can't match: as you inhale the scenery, you can get a root canal too." The LPC hosted public hearings in June 1993 to determine whether to designate the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower's interior as a city landmark, along with that of three other banks in Brooklyn and two in Manhattan. The bank's interior was designated a New York City landmark on June 25, 1996. By 1999, Republic and its branches had been acquired by
HSBC Bank USA HSBC Bank USA, National Association, an American subsidiary of multinational company HSBC, is a bank with its operational head office in New York City and its nominal head office in McLean, Virginia (as designated on its charter). HSBC Bank USA, ...
. HSBC moved into the 7th through 11th floors, while the remaining space was 96 percent occupied by 2002. However, the relatively small dimensions of the tower were not attractive to larger tenants, which preferred more modern buildings with larger floor plates. Though many of the building's dentists moved away in the 1990s and 2000s, two dozen dentists remained in 2004.


Residential conversion


Sale and renovation

In mid-2004, One Hanson Place's owner HSBC Bank USA placed the building for sale. One potential buyer wanted to operate the building as an office structure, but he reneged because he could not match the bids of residential developers, who were willing to pay much more. That November, the Dermot Company and Canyon Capital Realty Advisers agreed to buy the building for about $73 million. Basketball player
Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...
was also a partner in the sale, which was finalized in May 2005. After the sale, HSBC leased a bank branch at Atlantic Terminal, and the building's remaining dentists had to find new offices. The new owners planned to convert the building to stores and residential condominiums while preserving the facade and banking interior. H. Thomas O'Hara designed the renovation. One Hanson Place was one of several landmarked bank buildings in New York City that were either partially or fully converted into residential buildings during the 2000s. The dentists had used large amounts of
mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...
vapor in their offices, and a third of the offices had higher levels of mercury vapor than was allowed for residences. Consequently, the mercury vapor also had to be removed. The clock faces were also temporarily disassembled for repairs, since they had become unsynchronized not only with the actual time but with each other. Johnson did not initially plan to include affordable housing in the converted building, prompting criticism from community groups.
Corcoran Group Corcoran Group is an American real estate firm founded in 1973 by Barbara Corcoran. History Barbara Corcoran, a former diner waitress, founded her own real estate company in 1973 with a $1,000 loan. In 2001, Barbara Corcoran sold her company t ...
, which was hired to market the building, had planned to lease the banking room to a Borders bookstore in 2006 but was not successful in doing so. In June 2006, the 179 residential condominiums were placed on sale for between $350,000 and $3.5 million each. The first residents finalized their purchases in 2007, and the clock was re-lit that November.


Post-conversion

Seventy percent of the condominiums had been sold by January 2008. That month, the first residents moved into the building and the clock's hands started operating again. Residential sales peaked in early 2008 before stalling for about six months. Film producer
CJ Follini CJ Follini (born in New York) has 38 years of experience as a multi-family office Chief Investment Officer. His track record in commercial real estate, venture capital, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and special situations i22.4% annual rate of ...
and Noyack Medical Partners purchased the commercial section of the tower that May. The commercial owners held talks with
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
and
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
to open an Apple Store or a Microsoft Store in the space. However, it was hard to attract tenants to the banking room because the landmark status prevented extensive modifications. Furthermore, the commercial owners wanted to wait for a suitable tenant such as a "museum store" that would preserve the banking hall. Events venue Skylight One Hanson agreed to operate the banking room in July 2009. Skylight One Hanson opened that September, renting the banking room for events for at least $15,000 per night. The venue was used by such events as VH1 Divas and MTV's Hip Hop Honors. That December, the banking room also started hosting flea market
Brooklyn Flea Brooklyn Flea is a company based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2008 by Jonathan Butler, creator of Brownstoner Magazine, and Eric Demby, the former communications director for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Flea runs sev ...
during weekends. Though the building's apartments were heavily marketed, some units remained unsold, leading the developers to reduce prices several times. By 2011, all units except for six penthouses had been sold. The six penthouse units were auctioned that May at a significant discount from their original prices. The clock was repaired again and relit in 2013. In June 2015, Madison Realty Capital bought One Hanson Place's retail condominium, including the banking room, for $20.4 million, Madison Realty intended to convert the space into a flagship store. In 2017, the LPC approved a proposal by Higgins Quasebarth & Partners and Acheson Doyle Partners Architects to modify the banking room. The changes largely consisted of circulation improvements, including removing parts of tellers' desks. At the end of that year, Madison Realty hired Chris DeCrosta to market the space. Further alterations to the banking room's furniture were approved in 2019. From December 2021 to February 2022, Skylight One Hanson hosted a pop-up attraction themed to
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
's adaptation of the TV series ''
Money Heist ''Money Heist'' ( es, La casa de papel, link=no, , ) is a Spanish heist crime drama television series created by Álex Pina. The series traces two long-prepared heists led by the Professor (Álvaro Morte), one on the Royal Mint of Spain, and ...
''.


Impact


Architectural commentary

Reviews of the building's architecture were generally positive. A ''New York Times'' writer characterized the building in 1972 as "possibly America's funniest skyscraper", considering that its interior "resembles a movie set for an impossibly opulent version of ''The Last of the Borgias''".
Christopher Gray Christopher Stewart Gray (April 24, 1950 – March 10, 2017) was an American journalist and architectural historian,Schneider, Daniel B (August 27, 2000)"F.Y.I. Hell's Kitchen in the Raw" ''The New York Times''. March 4, 2010. noted for his week ...
of the ''Times'' wrote: "The main lobby and banking area are elegant, affecting the grand style designed to make every depositor feel like a millionaire." In a book about Brooklyn's buildings, historian
Francis Morrone Francis Morrone (born 12 May 1958) is an American architectural historian of Irish and Italian ancestry, originally from Chicago, known for his work on the built history of New York City. Morrone's essays on architecture have appeared in ''The Wall ...
described One Hanson Place as "one of the five to ten greatest skyscrapers in New York City", saying that it even surpassed Halsey, McCormack and Helmer's design for the neighboring Hanson Place Church. Some observers compared the massing to a phallus. For instance, the 2010 edition of the ''
AIA Guide to New York City The ''AIA Guide to New York City'' by Norval White, Elliot Willensky, and Fran Leadon is an extensive catalogue with descriptions, critique and photographs of significant and noteworthy architecture throughout the five boroughs of New York City. ...
'' called the dome "New York's most exuberant phallic symbol". Author
Jonathan Ames Jonathan Ames (; born March 23, 1964) is an American author who has written a number of novels and comic memoirs, and is the creator of two television series, ''Bored to Death'' (HBO) and ''Blunt Talk'' (STARZ). In the late '90s and early 2000s, ...
created a " Most Phallic Building" contest following an article he wrote for ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'' magazine, in which he claimed that the tower was the most phallic building he had ever seen.


Symbolism and height record

Upon the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower's groundbreaking, the ''
New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' said the tower would be "the pioneer skyscraper of unusual beauty in this vicinity", while the ''Brooklyn Times-Union'' stated: "Our skyline and that of Manhattan are merging". When the tower was completed, the ''
Brooklyn Citizen The ''Brooklyn Citizen'' was a newspaper serving Brooklyn in New York City from 1887 to 1947. It became influential under editor Andrew McLean (1848-1922), a Scottish immigrant from Renton, West Dunbartonshire. Its offices were located at Fulton a ...
'' said: "This awe-inspiring structure is more than a monument to the bank whose name it bears; it is the tangible evidence of the fact that the LIRR station area is soon to become as fine a commercial center as the district further down town around Borough Hall." Within a year of completion, the ''Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' said the tower had led to the establishment of a business hub around the LIRR terminal. The tower had been intended as the first of a series of skyscrapers near Downtown Brooklyn. In the decade prior to One Hanson Place's completion, four buildings had held the record of Brooklyn's tallest building. Eric Nash wrote in 2005 that the building "was meant to put Brooklyn on the map as a rival to
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
in terms of both architecture and finance". The onset of the Great Depression had led to the cancellation of other high-rise projects nearby. Despite this, Paul Goldberger wrote for the ''Times'' in 1988: "The cityscape has never suffered from this tower's isolated position." As late as 2001, the ''Times'' called One Hanson Place one of "the only instantly recognizable elements of the fragmentary Brooklyn skyline". It was only in the 2010s that several new skyscrapers in Brooklyn exceeded One Hanson Place's height; accordingly, several buildings held the record for Brooklyn's tallest building. The largest of these is
9 DeKalb Avenue The Brooklyn Tower (originally referred to as 340 Flatbush Avenue Extension and subsequently 9 DeKalb Avenue) is a supertall mixed-use, primarily residential skyscraper in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. Developed by JDS Deve ...
, which at about is more than double One Hanson Place's height. The building remained an icon of Brooklyn through the late 20th century; for example, a 1983 article for the ''Daily News'' described the Williamsburgh Savings Bank and its tower as one symbol of "who really runs Brooklyn". The high concentration of dentists as tenants led the ''
New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...
'' to call the building "the mecca of dentistry" in the 2000s. The ''New York Observer'' said in 2006: "To call the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building iconic is hardly to the point. It is possibly the only skyline landmark in the borough, besides the
Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
..." The tower has also been used as a filming location, including for the film '' Prizzi's Honor'', the TV series '' Gotham'', and the film '' Going in Style''.


See also

* List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn *
List of tallest buildings in New York City New York City, the most populous city in the United States, is home to over 7,000 completed high-rise buildings of at least , of which at least 95 are taller than . The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which rises ...


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * *


External links

*
Official website (retail)

Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building photographs and architectural drawings
Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...
{{Authority control 1929 establishments in New York City Bank buildings in New York City Clock towers in New York City Commercial buildings completed in 1929 Commercial buildings in Brooklyn Downtown Brooklyn Fort Greene, Brooklyn New York City Designated Landmarks in Brooklyn New York City interior landmarks Office buildings completed in 1929 Office buildings in New York City Residential buildings in Brooklyn Residential condominiums in New York City Residential skyscrapers in New York City Romanesque Revival architecture in New York City Skyscrapers in Brooklyn