If a building can symbolize a city, this one fits perfectly. It's our Leaning Tower, our Space Needle. The hulking mass at 333 State St. nicely encompasses everything Bridgeport is today.

It's an abandoned building with big plans and no signs of progress — kind of like the rest of the city. The building, formerly used for offices and as an alternate entrance to a long-defunct mall, sits impassively at a highly visible downtown corner. At the intersection of State Street and Lafayette Boulevard, the dark glass edifice can't be missed; anyone heading downtown from Interstate 95 drives right past it.

The boarded-up structure sits smack in the middle of what should be a cornerstone of any downtown redevelopment plan, the expanding Housatonic Community College. It's across the street from the federal courthouse, a 30-second walk from City Hall Annex and the public library and, not least, on the opposite corner from the Connecticut Post building. It's not well-hidden.

Its history, though, is growing hazy. Once home to law offices in the upper floors and take-out restaurants at street level, the building was connected to the old Hi-Ho Mall. In the 1990s, when the languishing shopping center was cleared away to make room for HCC, the building was apparently damaged in the demolition process. With its elevator shaft nonfunctioning, the structure was emptied of offices, and sat vacant.

It's still sitting there.

When last in the news, the city had acquired the

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building from a subsidiary of the estate of the late Francis D'Addario. The 2006 deal included forgiveness of $3 million in unpaid taxes to the city in an uncontested foreclosure. The city was said at that time to be about six months away from a deal to sell the building for $550,000 to Greenfield Partners, a Norwalk developer that would convert it into 65 apartments. We're still waiting to hear about it.

Since then, the only comment from the city came when chunks of the building's faade started falling to the sidewalk last summer. Concrete barriers were put up to keep pedestrians a safe distance away; they're still sitting there. l

Suppose you're coming downtown for the first time. Maybe you've heard about the Citytrust apartments and all the other new housing in the planning stages. Maybe you're headed to the People's Bank Bridgeport Center building or a downtown theater, and this building is the first thing you see. First impression of Bridgeport — try again in a few years, maybe.

The building has potential. If it could be incorporated into the HCC layout, it could give some continuity between the college's two entryways. It's a short walk to the train station, so apartments make good sense. But as it stands now, it's a blight on a downtown bright spot.

The latest plans have the whiff of Steel Point about them — we're just ironing out the details; just this last property acquisition; this is the one that will finally turn the city around; Bridgeport is the future of Fairfield County.

Maybe it is, but that future looks further away lately. With a lame-duck mayor in City Hall, what happens to projects and deals already under way? Will the state want to keep disbursing Steel Point money with no idea of what the next administration has in mind? Are developers wary? What about that money General Electric promised for downtown redevelopment? Everything is in flux.

The most recent holdup at 333 State St. reportedly involved parking. There are statutes saying an apartment building needs so many spaces for so many residents, and the building is hemmed in by other structures all around. There is, though, a huge parking lot behind the building across the street at 881 Lafayette Blvd., next to the courthouse. It's hard to believe something couldn't be worked out with those spaces, which the planned condos in that structure could never fill. (Speaking of which, that's another downtown project we're waiting to see some real progress on.)

The nameless eyesore at 333 State St., with its chipboard wall and exposed ductwork, presents a vision of Bridgeport that was supposed to be moving into the past. There have been a few downtown successes lately, notably the apartments in the former Read's department store. But so much is up in the air — and with political uncertainty, it could all fall apart in a hurry. Bridgeport retains the raw materials for a great city — the downtown grid, the transportation hub, the rich suburbs and, most important, Long Island Sound. But it's so far past time for it to get its act together that people's skepticism is warranted. Maybe it's just not going to happen.

Hugh S. Bailey is assistant editorial page editor at the Connecticut Post. You can reach him at 203-330-6233 or via e-mail at hbailey@ctpost.com.