2. The Digital Clock of Water Street

A holdout building on Water Street

The typical holdout story is of the little guy standing up against the big developer but sometimes holdout buildings are just the result of bad decisions. 200 Water Street is the result of one such miscalculation. The building owner Robert Ardston miscalculated how high a price he could get for his five-story building. With negotiations at an impasse, William Kaufman, the developer of 127 John Street, decided to make the best of the situation. Kaufman carved out the section of his building that wrapped around the holdout buildings and added a touch of whimsy, commissioning a giant digital clock to screen the holdout underneath.