Greenpoint domes

It's not fair to expect modest, hardworking Greenpoint to produce great architecture.  And the bank I'm picking on here -- the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union (PSFCU) -- is not the spawn of some Gilded Age railroad baron with money to burn.

But still, I find it hard to understand how a bank could allow its headquarters' most distinctive features to be so obviously plastic.

Both the domes, and the heraldic shields intended to impart some Old World class, are 100% plastic.  The clock is the most solid feature, and it looks like a $6 battery-operated Kmart clock that sticks to the wall with tape.  The building as a whole looks like a plastic model of a suburban Cadillac dealership.

Note how cheesy the building looks next to the color-coordinated yellow signs and junker-gone-to-heaven on the auto parts store next door.

And comparing the PSFCU domes to another bank dome nearby -- the Green Point Savings Bank on Manhattan Ave., built in 1908 -- is like comparing apples and the plastic bags you put them in at the store.

It's too late now, the domes are glued in place.  But below are a few simulations I've done -- free of charge, even cheaper than plastic -- of alterations that might help the building face the light of day with a little more dignity (troll wig courtesy of some website).