RPI Building Conservation in the News (from our Archives)

As we prepare for another spring semester and preservation planning studio project, we thought our returning students and others would be interested to read about some of our past accomplishments and studio projects. Over the past few years, our faculty and students have completed National Register nominations, historic structure reports, building condition studies, and similar reports and their work has been featured by various on- and off-campus media outlets. For a trip down memory lane, a few of the more readily accessible of these articles includes:

Architecture Students Offer Revitalization Plans for Local Village (Campus News, February 28, 2005) describes our 2005 Main Street studio project in the village of Waterford, New York. Our work built upon work initiated by the town and village of Waterford and River Street Planning & Development, including preparation of a comprehensive plan, local waterfront revitalization plan, implementation of canal corridor improvements including construction of a visitor center and development of entrepreneur training and loan programs.

West Hall Revival (Rensselaer Alumni Magazine, Winter 2004) describing Preservation Design Studio faculty and students' research and documentation of West Hall and the building's subsequent restoration by John G. Waite Associates. West Hall is a prominent campus building that was designed in the Second Empire Style by Marcus Cummings. The building served as Troy's first hospital and later became a Catholic high school before being acquired by RPI.

Lending A Hand in Preserving Local History (Campus News, June 1, 2003) describes the successful efforts of the Recording Historic Structures and Researching Historic Structures classes to list Troy's 1920 Fire Alarm and Police Signaling Building in the National Register of Historic Places.

Architecture Class Tackles "Main Street" in Middleburgh (Campus News, February 18, 2003) which details our spring 2003 preservation planning/Main Street studio in Middleburgh, New York. Our work resulted in the subsequent restoration of numerous storefronts and facades.

2 Sites Await National Register (Cathy Woodruff, Albany Times Union, July 6, 2000) describes student work leading to the listing of Troy's Osgood Firehouse and a farmhouse in Cropseyville, New York being listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Our earliest projects included a preservation planning studio in Troy's North Central neighborhood and preparation of a historic structure report for Troy's Beman Park Hose Co. No. 9.

Our most recent Preservation Design Studio occurred last spring and resulted in the preparation of an exhaustive historic structure report for Woodside Church and Chapel, part of the legacy of iron magnate Henry Burden and his family in Troy. If you visit the Building Conservation program website, you will see some of the numerous measured drawings (plans, elevations, sections, details, etc.) that were prepared as part of the report. Woodside Church and Chapel were vacated by the Albany Presbytery and, with assistance from the Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway, Troy Architectural Program, and others, efforts are continuing to find a sympathetic buyer.