SCHENECTADY Center City plans backed Key downtown building facade lauded, panned BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The corner of the Center City building will be torn down and replaced this winter with a modern steel-and-glass section that will rise five stories. The Schenectady Planning Commission approved the design Wednesday night after commissioners praised the new look for the State Street-Jay Street corner. The building will fill the space now known as The Circle, where performances take place yearround. But some space will remain under an overhang, where developers hope a restaurant could run a bustling outdoor cafe. That same space could become a covered performance space during festivals, Galesi Group officials said Wednesday. The building itself will be distinct as it wraps around the State-Jay corner. The facade will be made up of eight exposed steel beams and dozens of windows, separated by horizontal strips of white stone. The addition will be one story taller than the rest of the building, creating what architect J.T. Pollard called a tower effect. The top four stories of tower will also jut out 5 feet from the existing State Street streetwall, creating a covered walkway 14 feet high. Under the walkway, the facade would be of mahogany and limestone, which would continue on the fi rst floor of the Jay Street side. “It’s a more modern look. We’re not trying to make a historic building here,” Pollard said. Commission members were impressed. “I think it will turn out to be a very interesting-looking building,” said Commissioner Brad Lewis. “In a lot of ways, I hope we encourage — periodically — architects to do a little experimentation in the city because I think frankly it will make it a more interesting city.” But nearby property owner Frederick Killeen was not pleased by the idea of a massive, modern building in the heart of the downtown, where many buildings were built before or during the Great Depression. “As a neighbor, we’d like to see this building redeveloped. … But it’s radically inconsistent with the character of the building that’s there now,” Killeen said. “It strikes me as somewhat overpowering.” Synthesis Architects also objected to the project. The firm’s building is next door to Center City on Jay Street, separated by a wide alleyway. That alleyway, which has existed since 1922, will narrow to 8 feet in the Center City design. The architects, who use the alleyway to reach their cars and enjoy the light flowing into their office above it, wanted to maintain the 14-foot width. They hired attorney Elizabeth Coreno to fight for the alleyway’s existing width. “The impact to Synthesis is enormous,” she said, but the commission ruled that an 8-foot alley was reasonable. Killeen also voiced the concerns of many Jay Street business owners who fear the project will make it more difficult for customers to reach their stores. The area has been hard hit by the recession and business owners say they can’t afford to lose retail foot traffi c. “There’s going to be significant disruption to the businesses on Jay Street,” Killeen said. Commissioners assured him that the project will adhere to the city’s standards for minimum disruption, but Killeen scoffed at that. “I’ve lived through several downtown projects,” he said. “There is going to be disruption.” He also questioned the need to extend the steel-and-glass tower beyond the existing streetwall. Pollard said the tower should mark the entrance to the Jay Street pedestrian walkway, but Killeen said it would make it harder to fi nd the entrance. “It’s going to limit the visibility of the entrance of Jay Street,” he said. “The businesses there are already struggling.” The rear entrance to Center City will also change, with a glass column enclosing the four-story staircase. Many windows will be added. “We’ve tried to break it up, use glass and limestone to give it a traditional feel but also give it a modern design,” Pollard said. Both gymnasium and office entrances would be in the rear, but the main office entrance would be on Jay Street, where limestone would frame the first two stories. The frame was designed to “bring the eye down” since Jay Street has mostly one and two-story buildings, Pollard said. Inside, the soccer arena will become a gymnasium and exercise room. The YMCA is negotiating with Galesi to move its downtown facility there. Decking over the arena will allow for retail space on the Jay Street side of the building, and CVS will be able to expand by 2,000 square feet on the State Street side. The upper floors will be ...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00100
EDITORIALS Go back to drawing board on Center City
Frederick Killeen, lawyer and Schenectady downtown property owner, led a successful fight last year to keep Jay Street from being declared a historic district. He was wrong then, but ironic though it may be, he is right now about the new design unveiled last week for the reconstructed Center City. Right because the hulking, modernist, industrial-style addition made mostly of glass doesn’t fit with the small-scale, historic, well-proportioned, brick and wood buildings around it. Ironic because, had the historic district been created, this design wouldn’t have been approved by the city Historic Commission. Unfortunately, it was approved last week by the city Planning Commission, even though it appears to violate the design standards adopted by the City Council in March. Under the section “Building Character,” those standards call for new additions and alterations to “generally employ building types and architectural detailing that are compatible to the architecture of the area in their massing and external treatment as appropriate.” They also call for retaining the architectural rhythm of building openings (including windows and entrances) of the same block, and attempting to maintain the horizontal rhythm of the block by using a similar alignment of windows and cornices, among other things. This structure is on two blocks, State and Jay, and is arrhythmic with the buildings on both. It isn’t even coherent within itself; there are elements, like tall vertical girders and a three-and-a-half-story Stonehenge-type slab over the entrance, that just seem tacked on to give it some dramatic detail. What it looks like is a multilevel parking garage with lots of glass, a new science building at a technology institute, a downtown galleria shopping mall in some Sunbelt city, or one of those gleaming high-rises being built in Abu Dhabi. It may be appropriate in those places, but not in a city that is trying to retain, and take advantage of, the best elements of its past. A lot of money has been spent, under a Metroplex-funded facade program, to get buildings that are attractive and in proportion, and fit downtown’s historic and architectural character. This one isn’t, and doesn’t. The corner of Jay and State is a focal point for downtown, which is why $1 million in public money was expended five years ago to create a nice public piazza there as part of the streetscape project. That space was really starting to be used, but when the Galesi Corp. agreed to take over Center City earlier this year, it was only on the condition that it also get the piazza — for $1 — and be able to fill it in for retail. While we were excited about the shabby and underused complex finally being fixed up and occupied (by MVP, the YMCA, and others) we bemoaned this loss. However, we ...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar04001
The proposed design of the Center City building is enormously ugly [Dec. 18 online Gazette]. For any architect, commissioner, or city official to be impressed with the modern-looking steel and glass structure to be built next to buildings constructed many years ago is an insult to every citizen of the city. The proposed pagoda-style roof stands out like a wart on a sore thumb. What in heck were they thinking? The design of this building needs to go back to the drawing board so that this building, which will be built in a prominent spot in downtown Schenectady, will not be an insult to the surrounding architecture.
You are missing the really important issue here Richard. You, I and the rest of the taxpayers paid $1 million 5 years ago to build that piazza. Only to sell it to Galesi for $1.00!!! So we have lost $999,999.00 in that investiment.
So I guess that I can go the the bank, borrow $1 million dollars and 5 years later pay it off, in full for $1.00! Yup, that would work. The bank's investors would have the loan agent out on his/her a** in a heartbeat! Come on sheople, wake up!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
"I'm not trying to make a historic look here"-DUH! Another quote of the month. It's a modern white elephant that has been a constant burden on the oppressed County taxpayers. BT is correct but it gets worse. The new developers are proposing an outdoor cafe but no one wants to run it.
Typical County "planning" around here. No community input. Krat idiots do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Pushed on the local sheeple and no one not even the architects on Jay St support it. So far only MVP has moved a few jobs to this. The business school wised up and moved elsewhere. The Y {without a pool!} is still chewing on it. No new retail-no sales tax generation. The outdoor cafe will be another criminal hang like the patio was. Meanwhile the few merchants Downtown are squeezed by higher DSIC fees and higher County taxes. Bravo to the Gazetto for getting this right but they refuse to put the blame where it belongs, it's a structural problem from poor planning. New concept: listen to the local businesses first.
Re Dec. 21 editorial, "Go back to drawing board on Center City": I disagree with the Gazette's descriptive comparisons of the proposal Center City reconstruction. It looks, instead, much more like an early Disneyland version of an Americanized three-story pagoda. If ever the expression "back to the drawing board" applied, this is it.
Re April 3 article, “City Center expansion design draws criticism”: The City Center Authority has been committed to keeping this project within budget, not allowing it to be a financial burden to [city] residents. There is no waste of taxpayers’ money here. Its location, just barely on Broadway and not connected to any historic buildings, allows its design to be tastefully different. The City Center’s sole purpose as a meeting space makes it unique within our city. The City Center should not look like another hotel, condominium, or mixed commercial space. Nor should it be another unidentifiable blended brick façade. Instead, it needs to be unmistakable. The new City Center design holds true to those thoughts. No longer will the City Center be a confusing visual continuation of the hotel. In recent illustrations it appears huge, but this moderately tall two-story structure will actually be dwarfed by the adjoining five-story hotel, and nearby five-story Algonquin building. During the day, the glass panels are intended to reflect the images and energy of downtown. At night the City Center will be a softly lit beacon of intrigue with interior silhouettes of activity. To those inside, the wonderful views of downtown will stimulate them to explore our city. The exterior limestone veneered panels serve to break up the glass, both visually and economically in a soft clean manner. An otherwise sharp front corner has been softened by angled glass panels in a “V” formation. The design and material choices became quite limited due to the strict constraints of existing interior layout and, unfortunately, budget. The City Center expansion is an economic plus for our city. The expansion design identifies the City Center as a point of interest and marks its place in time. An award-winning design? Maybe not. Designed tastefully and within budget? Thankfully, yes.
ROGER GOLDSMITH Saratoga Springs The writer is a member of the City Center Au thority Board and vice president of the city’s Downtown Business Association.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
"There is no waste of taxpayer money here,"-how could it be in Schenectady?
The other difference is that Saratoga has a full Hotel and gourmet restaurant in their City Center. They aren't trying to relocate a non-profit that pays nothing. They haven't wasted millions in sheeple's County taxes trying to open a gin mill-that still hasn't opened and never will open.
Center City design doesn’t fit in with rest of downtown
A Dec. 21, 2008, editorial concerned with the re-design of Schenectady’s Center City called on the city to revisit the design because it was totally out of character with historic buildings downtown and did not meet any of the design guidelines established for downtown. Well, now since the structure is erected, you can see how out-of-scale it is, which overwhelms the corner and every building around it. As I have heard, some Jay Street merchants have been grumbling how poor it is. The space where this building is being erected once was an active urban space known as the “Circle,” where many events would take place — “Jazz on Jay” and various other events sponsored by Proctors — as well as being the only active urban space downtown, an important component of the State Street streetscape. At lunchtime there would always be a number of people relaxing, having lunch in this space. All the great cities have similar urban spaces that play an important part in creating a “sense of place” in downtown cores. Great examples are Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, Portsmouth Square in San Francisco, and Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Ore. What if suddenly these great urban spaces were proposed to be developed? I would guess there would be such an outrage from the public and local watchdog groups that it would never happen. What I don’t understand is how the city could let this happen. If the rationale was to increase the tax base to bring in additional taxes, so be it. But at the least this building could have been designed to be compatible and sympathetic to the space and surrounding buildings. It was my understanding that the Heritage Foundation is supposed to watch over the demolition of historic buildings, as well as moderating historically sensitive architecture projects. But on this occasion, this organization chose not to respond. I’m wondering if it was an oversight or some other motive. This group has previously been concerned with preserving historic buildings downtown, as well as making sure new buildings contain historically sensitive architecture, which is laudable. I’m perplexed why they didn’t aggressively involve themselves in this project and other recent downtown projects — a bit strange. Just maybe the “Circle” could have been preserved, or at least a much better building could have been designed.
RICHARD A. EATS Glenville The writer is a professional landscape architect.
They put duct tape on their mouths when an historic building gets demolished for politically correct reasons (i.e. building a mosque to kiss muslim a**, or building something that the county democraps order built.)
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Logged
"I'm not trying to make a historic look here"-DUH! Another quote of the month. It's a modern white elephant that has been a constant burden on the oppressed County taxpayers. BT is correct but it gets worse. The new developers are proposing an outdoor cafe but no one wants to run it. 
