From the outside, the most visible changes from the renovation are to the windows.
Home renovations are visible on almost every block, including in some of the most troubled neighborhoods.
Underneath the square he placed empty white bookshelves, which, until the area was torn up for renovations this summer, were visible through a plexiglass window in the ground.
The Garden spent $60 million to start the renovation in areas not visible to the public through the end of 2009.
Amira Zahid, the museum's treasurer and the most visible person behind its founding and renovation, remains bitter about that negative response.
"Your agency began a renovation of this highly visible building more than six years ago, which resulted in the placement of scaffolding on its Adams, Willoughby and Pearl Street facades," Mr. Golden wrote in August to William J. Diamond, commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
Vivian Becker, executive director of the Pratt Area Community Council, a nonprofit community development group in Fort Greene, described the old armory as "a very visible and blighted building" and its renovation as "a long overdue project, which we support".
Gays were in large part responsible for its renovation, and are an integral and visible part of the energetic social scene.
Agents can try to head off low valuations by arming the appraiser with relevant comparable sales and information about renovations or upgrades that are not readily visible, like insulation.
Then there is the New York Public Library, highly visible in New York because of the controversy surrounding its planned renovation.
