Rendering of retail space via Prudential Douglas Elliman. Just after Apple turned sour on New York (and vice versa) over the city's green apple logo, Microsoft is primed to plug into the retail racket with their very own outlet. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the nation's first Microsoft store might be in Brooklyn; the company is eyeing the ground floor of the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank. If they seal the deal, they'll be taking......

Staten Island Ferry, by General Erin at Flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: missing children on 12th Ave. in Brooklyn, an overturned tractor trailer on the eastbound BQE in Queens, and an armed robbery on West 42nd St. in Manhattan. The contraband room at JFK International: it's like a freegan's vision of heaven. The clock atop the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower (now One Hanson Place) started ticking today at noon. A man was......

A rendering of Brooklyn's proposed City Tech Tower, designed by Renzo Piano, at Tillary and and Jay Street sent some into speculation mode, especially since its height seemed to be up to 1,000 feet tall. Which would make just about twice the height of the 512-foot tall Williamsburgh Savings Bank, currently the tallest building the Brooklyn. However, the rendering of the building is apparently old. A representative at Forest City Ratner, the development company which......

At long last, after more than a year suffering behind black netting, the four-faced clock and gilded dome of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building are back in (almost) full view. But don't rely on it to tell time. The hands don't move yet! The NY Times has a write-up of the restored clock, which the building's owner, the Dermot Company, began renovating in 2006. Certainly, the four-faced clock of Brooklyn's tallest is now a......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Water main break at Terminal 4 at JFK Airport, structural damage at a building on Broadway and Dey in Manhattan and a missing child at Fieldston Rd & Mosholu Ave in the Bronx The Williamsburgh Savings Bank gets naked. Even though Citigroup said its third quarter earnings would drop 60% and UBS fired its CFO and laid off 1500, Wall Street rallied to a record Dow close of 14,087.55.......

Stabby special today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing on West Broadway and Canal, another on Broadway and 67th, and another in the Rockaways. Take a look at this huge Brooklyn panorama-- taken from somewhere in the vicinity of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank. MOMA is expanding again! In five years they'll have taken over all of midtown. F Trainer gets the prize for most extensive photo coverage of The Revere Sugar Factory-- be sure......

We're really digging Dalton Rooney's "Hello My Name Is.." project-- he's making these stickers of various Brooklyn landmarks, and then photographing them right in front of the landmarks. So deliciously meta! What landmark should he do next? Our vote: The Williamsburgh Savings Bank. Bonus: Dalton runs the seriously good Seriously Excited photoblog-- one of the current bright lights of the NYC photoblogging scene.......

The City Planning Commission has spoken and says the Atlantic Yards Project should be reduced by 8%. This is only a "recommendation," but since the project's developer the Forest City Ratner had been considering a 6-8% downsizing, given all the public outcry, this seems like something the group may well do. Especially since the City Planning Commission "raved," the Post puts it, about the tallest skyscraper in the group, Frank Gehry's "Miss Brooklyn" structure that......

-- A one-bedroom apartment above the Red Hook Fairway for $3150? Maybe they're charging extra for the biodiesel smell! -- Experience the wonder of the One Web Day event through Brian Van's exciting photographs. -- Doesn't it kind of look like the Williamsburgh Savings Bank is wearing a condom? No, seriously, it does. -- A priest who stole $1 million from an Upper East Side church was sentenced to 1-4 years, plus needs to......

The NY Times is reporting that Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner will cut the size of the project by 6-8%. How? By reducing the amount of market-rate housing. And also from the Times: "[Ratner's company] Forest City is also considering reducing the height of the project’s tallest tower, which is known as Miss Brooklyn, to get it under the height of the borough’s tallest building, the nearby Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, according to real estate......

After Wednesday's public meeting, the NY Post is reporting that Ratner spokesperson Joe DePlasco said the developer "would consider suggestions" made by Marty Markowitz to scale down the Atlantic Yards project. Markowitz proposed limiting the height of the project's 16 high-rises to under 520 feet so that the Williamsburgh Savings Bank would remain Brooklyn's tallest building. The New York Times weighs in with a dissection of Markowitz's about-face, reporting that while Markowitz claims he......

The Atlantic Yards Project's public meeting last night was packed with Brooklyn residents wanting to have their say. WNBC reported that hundreds of people were waiting outside the New York City College of Technology, since the auditorium was full, and inside, "the crowd became unruly, cheering wildly for their cause until security was called in to remove a few of the audience members." That sounds about right - and they had lots of signs......

Yesterday at One Hanson Place - better known as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank - was a study in contrasts. Magic Johnson of the Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds (yes, that Magic Johnson), partnering with the Dermot Company, towered over Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz as they touted the latest development at Brooklyn's tallest building: One Hanson Place, 189 luxury condos, starting at $350,000, to be completed in mid 2007. Markowitz maintained his commitment to an income-and-ethnic-diverse......

- The Williamsburgh Savings Bank prepares for luxury. - Chelsea residents seem to be winning the war against a 17-story tower. - The first female rabbi is retiring soon. - A Sweet 16 party was ended badly yesterday when a car ran over four partygoers. - Gypsy moths are eating New Jersey! - Jane Smiley chews out a certain very thin conservative pundit. - Meanwhile, the ever-wonderful Joyce Wadler takes on celebrity commencement speaches.......

Love the Williamsburgh Savings Bank but don't think you can afford the condos (thanks, conversion!)? Well, you're in luck, because for the next eight days, someone on eBay is auctioning a cool "Williamsburg Brooklyn Ceramic Savings Bank "! his item up for bid is a 7" high ceramic piggy bank depicting the bank, a really fantastic item. Slot for coins, twist-off reservoir, brass attachment for chained pen (not included). This bank is circa 1960's, and......

If you missed Sunday's tour of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank in Fort Greene, you are shit out of luck. The building is being converted to condos, and it's going to be off-limits for awhile. The best we can do is offer these photo sets by Triborough and JayKayEss. The interiors are the real visual treat, but the view from the roof is also worth checking out-- particularly the shots showing the blocks being knocked......

Another dispatch from the center of the world's most overblown real estate bubble: apartments in the soon-to-be-converted Williamsburgh Savings Bank building are going for up to THREE MILLION DOLLARS. What do you get for that price? A fairly long elevator ride and a great view of the north wall of Bruce Ratner's new Nets Stadium project. Hot! As if that news wasn't upsetting enough, the New York Post is reporting that beautiful lobby of......

- If you wanted to see the interior of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank lobby in person, times up. - Got a lot of extra clothing to get rid of? Looking to get some new (to you) clothing? Check out the Swap-O-Rama tomorrow from 2-7. - Imagine you ran in last week's J. P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge (why would you imagine that, we don't know, just bear with us) and you were pleasantly surprised......

The Skyscraper Museum asked one hundred architects, brokers, builders, critics, developers, engineers, historians, lawyers, officials, owners, planners and scholars what their ten favorite NYC skyscrapers were from a list of buildings (which did not include the World Trade Center). The NY Times looks at the results, which are a great shorthand of the must-sees in the city. The top ten are Chrysler Building (with the most votes), Seagram, Flatiron, Woolworth, Empire State, Lever House, RCA,......

Ever wonder what the view looks like from the Williamsburgh Savings Bank (the tallest building in Brooklyn and one of the world's most phallic buildings)? Mike over at Satan's Laundromat takes a peek. Check out the views before the building goes Condo and Ratner builds his insta-skyline next door. Photo from Satan's Laundromat.......

What cause could bring together such diverse names as Sidney "Sonny" Hertzberg and World B. Free, not to mention make Marty Markowitz talk about crying? Bringing the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn, of course. Bruce Ratner, New York City property mogul and president of Forest City Ratner, wants to buy the Nets and build them a stadium over the LIRR rail yards near the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues in Brooklyn. The central Brooklyn......