Skill crane and stuffed sculptures.

The neighborhood that I live in Williamsburg, the most western edge of Brooklyn that looks on to the eastern edge of Manhattan, has been named “the next Soho.”

In the past ten years, Williamsburg has gone from an abandoned neighborhood, filled with car garages and artists’ studios, to become the next yuppie destination in New York City. As rent prices sky rocket and the artists are being pushed out further into Brooklyn and the other boroughs of NYC, Williamsburg is slowly but surly becoming completely gentrified.

The HSBC Bank building, the McCarren Pool and the Domino Sugar Factory are all buildings that symbolize not only Williamsburg’s past, being some of the oldest remaining buildings there, but also its future, as they stand on the verge of demolition and are constantly in the center of public debate about their conservation.

* Gentrification: Act of increasing property value by selling property to people wealthier than the current owners.