New York City's street art is one of its defining characteristics, one that separates us from weird clean cities. 

It's one of those things that New Yorkers are so used to seeing everywhere that we don't stop to think too often about how fortunate we are to be surrounded by art.

The historic Germania Bank Building at 190 Bowery, which was bought by real estate tycoon Aby Rosen for a lofty $55 Million last year, has recently been scrubbed free of the graffiti that covered nearly all of its surfaces.

Curbed reports that Rosen's decision to remove the graffiti changed a few times before he ultimately chose to have the building cleaned– only one piece of art clearly remains, a tag from the late street artist NEKST, which has been up there for about a decade.

For most of the summer, the power-washing of the building was underway almost daily and the results are... a little off. 

We know it makes sense but apparently the building is actually white? Who knew.

Apparently, the graffiti is still kinda visible under the now polished, shiny-ish exterior which looks kind of whack. 

It's giving us bad memories of slathering concealer over acne when we were fourteen. We didn't think anybody noticed but they definitely did. 

Sure, over time, it'll probably fade to nothing but right now, it looks kind of sad.

[anad]

There's also speculation as to whether taggers will take advantage of the blank slate. 

Chances are, after going through the trouble of cleaning the building, we think Rosen probably wasn't looking to create opportunity for a new generation of artists. 

ev.etc

Indoor renovations are pretty tight so nobody has seen inside yet but the conversion of the building into a high-end office space is allegedly well underway.

Cool, more offices. Exactly what Soho needs.