From The Times Union
By Paul Grondahl, photograph by Michael P. Farrell.
05/29/07
ALBANY -- For 10 years, architect William Brandow has walked to work past the five forlorn buildings known as Wellington Row.
Brandow -- a savior of old buildings by temperament -- looked beyond moldering columns, pigeon droppings and moss growing on lintels. He focused instead on two centuries of exceptional architectural history embedded in the derelict structures that command the crest of State Street hill in the shadow of the Capitol.
"These buildings show the evolution of Albany's most important street," Brandow said. "Wellington Row is where the wealthiest citizens of Albany lived in the early 1800s and it's where the street first made the shift from residential to commercial."
Here is where John Taylor Cooper, from the famed Coopers of Cooperstown, settled in a sumptuous town house at 134 State St. In 1832, he hired the noted architect, James Dakin, to remodel the 1820s house into a stunning Greek Revival residence befitting Cooper's social status.
Next door, the first two floors of the old Christian Brothers Academy bear remnants of a Federal-style town house built during the 19th century.
Similarly, at 140 State St., the defunct Berkshire Hotel includes a superstructure built around a Federal town house.
Over the years, instead of tearing down the residences, new commercial buildings were simply constructed above and around them, leaving the low-slung and ornate edifices embedded in the high-rises.
At 138 State St., the Renaissance Revival flourishes of the early 20th century Elks Lodge were created by the New York City architectural firm of M.L. and H.C. Emory.
"There's not a city in the world that wouldn't love to have those two buildings (138 and 140 State) next to each other, whether it be Paris or New York City," Brandow said.
In 2000, the Preservation League of New York State placed Wellington Row on its list of the most critical buildings across the state to be saved.
Last November, Wellington Row was bought for $925,000 by Columbia Development Cos. from London-based Sebba Rockaway Ltd. (which had paid $1.75 million in 1987).
Now, hopes are high among preservationists that the historic character of the buildings can be saved.
Columbia has proposed building a $60 million, 14-story office tower with street-level shops and condominiums. The Albany developer has said it wants to preserve the exterior facades of the Wellington Hotel and two other buildings.
Discussions are under way regarding specifics of the project between the developer, city officials and representatives of Historic Albany Foundation. Details of those negotiations are not being released, and Columbia officials were not available to discuss their plans.
"Keeping just the facade is one of my least favorite choices and the buildings would be much more stable keeping three walls as opposed to one," said Susan Holland, executive director of Historic Albany. "I'm an eternal optimist. I believe the city and the developers are very sensitive and will come up with a great project we can all support."
Brandow's boss, architect Jack Waite -- who has won historic preservation honors for his firm's work at Tweed Courthouse, Baltimore Cathedral, George Washington's home in Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and other historic structures -- feels a sense of urgency about Wellington Row's fate.
"We can't afford to lose those buildings. There's no reason they can't be saved," Waite said. "Wellington Row forms a very important part of the downtown Albany streetscape on one of the great streets in America in terms of intact architecture."
The site has been both a blessing and a curse for the city as far back as 1980, when the buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1986, the Wellington closed, bringing an end to a downtown fixture that had been home to generations of out-of-town visitors, University at Albany students and future governors Mario Cuomo and George Pataki.
When Sebba Rockaway bought the Wellington and two other buildings, it announced plans to tear them down and to build a new office tower. The London developer and the city squared off and their battle raged for years, while the vacant, boarded-up structures continued to slide into severe disrepair due to the elements and neglect.
Mayor Jerry Jennings' 1994 Capitalize Albany plan, which featured a revitalized Wellington Row as the centerpiece of a tree-lined expanse of stores and outdoor cafes, receded further and further into the background.
With Columbia's new ownership, coupled with a $2.5 million state grant to assist stabilization of the cluster of buildings, a clearer picture of Wellington Row's future should emerge soon, said Michael Yevoli, Albany's commissioner of development and planning.
"The developer is analyzing the structural and economic feasibility of as much preservation as possible," Yevoli said. "Preserving and re-using the buildings back into the fabric of the street would be a win-win for everybody."
Architectural historian Walter Wheeler, who has for years studied Wellington Row out of personal curiosity, wants as much of the buildings as possible to be preserved.
"They're fine buildings with nice proportions, good scale, excellent materials and wonderful use of shadow and light," Wheeler said.
"To settle only for the facades is rather defeatist," he said. "I think we can do better than what you see in parts of Boston, where they preserved little four-story ciphers as facades fronting 40-story buildings. Those facades are token symbols that are basically meaningless."
By Paul Grondahl, photograph by Michael P. Farrell.
05/29/07
ALBANY -- For 10 years, architect William Brandow has walked to work past the five forlorn buildings known as Wellington Row.
Brandow -- a savior of old buildings by temperament -- looked beyond moldering columns, pigeon droppings and moss growing on lintels. He focused instead on two centuries of exceptional architectural history embedded in the derelict structures that command the crest of State Street hill in the shadow of the Capitol."These buildings show the evolution of Albany's most important street," Brandow said. "Wellington Row is where the wealthiest citizens of Albany lived in the early 1800s and it's where the street first made the shift from residential to commercial."
Here is where John Taylor Cooper, from the famed Coopers of Cooperstown, settled in a sumptuous town house at 134 State St. In 1832, he hired the noted architect, James Dakin, to remodel the 1820s house into a stunning Greek Revival residence befitting Cooper's social status.
Next door, the first two floors of the old Christian Brothers Academy bear remnants of a Federal-style town house built during the 19th century.
Similarly, at 140 State St., the defunct Berkshire Hotel includes a superstructure built around a Federal town house.
Over the years, instead of tearing down the residences, new commercial buildings were simply constructed above and around them, leaving the low-slung and ornate edifices embedded in the high-rises.
At 138 State St., the Renaissance Revival flourishes of the early 20th century Elks Lodge were created by the New York City architectural firm of M.L. and H.C. Emory.
"There's not a city in the world that wouldn't love to have those two buildings (138 and 140 State) next to each other, whether it be Paris or New York City," Brandow said.
In 2000, the Preservation League of New York State placed Wellington Row on its list of the most critical buildings across the state to be saved.
Last November, Wellington Row was bought for $925,000 by Columbia Development Cos. from London-based Sebba Rockaway Ltd. (which had paid $1.75 million in 1987).
Now, hopes are high among preservationists that the historic character of the buildings can be saved.
Columbia has proposed building a $60 million, 14-story office tower with street-level shops and condominiums. The Albany developer has said it wants to preserve the exterior facades of the Wellington Hotel and two other buildings.
Discussions are under way regarding specifics of the project between the developer, city officials and representatives of Historic Albany Foundation. Details of those negotiations are not being released, and Columbia officials were not available to discuss their plans.
"Keeping just the facade is one of my least favorite choices and the buildings would be much more stable keeping three walls as opposed to one," said Susan Holland, executive director of Historic Albany. "I'm an eternal optimist. I believe the city and the developers are very sensitive and will come up with a great project we can all support."
Brandow's boss, architect Jack Waite -- who has won historic preservation honors for his firm's work at Tweed Courthouse, Baltimore Cathedral, George Washington's home in Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and other historic structures -- feels a sense of urgency about Wellington Row's fate.
"We can't afford to lose those buildings. There's no reason they can't be saved," Waite said. "Wellington Row forms a very important part of the downtown Albany streetscape on one of the great streets in America in terms of intact architecture."
The site has been both a blessing and a curse for the city as far back as 1980, when the buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1986, the Wellington closed, bringing an end to a downtown fixture that had been home to generations of out-of-town visitors, University at Albany students and future governors Mario Cuomo and George Pataki.
When Sebba Rockaway bought the Wellington and two other buildings, it announced plans to tear them down and to build a new office tower. The London developer and the city squared off and their battle raged for years, while the vacant, boarded-up structures continued to slide into severe disrepair due to the elements and neglect.
Mayor Jerry Jennings' 1994 Capitalize Albany plan, which featured a revitalized Wellington Row as the centerpiece of a tree-lined expanse of stores and outdoor cafes, receded further and further into the background.
With Columbia's new ownership, coupled with a $2.5 million state grant to assist stabilization of the cluster of buildings, a clearer picture of Wellington Row's future should emerge soon, said Michael Yevoli, Albany's commissioner of development and planning.
"The developer is analyzing the structural and economic feasibility of as much preservation as possible," Yevoli said. "Preserving and re-using the buildings back into the fabric of the street would be a win-win for everybody."
Architectural historian Walter Wheeler, who has for years studied Wellington Row out of personal curiosity, wants as much of the buildings as possible to be preserved.
"They're fine buildings with nice proportions, good scale, excellent materials and wonderful use of shadow and light," Wheeler said.
"To settle only for the facades is rather defeatist," he said. "I think we can do better than what you see in parts of Boston, where they preserved little four-story ciphers as facades fronting 40-story buildings. Those facades are token symbols that are basically meaningless."
