Historic Osgood neighborhood showcased - "A Touch of Heaven in the city of Troy"

Kudos and many thanks to our energetic and tireless neighbor, Claire Davis, the "force of nature" behind yesterday's tour of Troy's Osgood neighborhood. For those who may not know, Claire is also the force behind Troy in Bloom, which organizes an army of volunteers every Memorial Day weekend to plant flowers throughout downtown Troy, and is an active volunteer with many other causes. THANKS, CLAIRE, for all you do to make Troy a better place!



From Troy Record

By Robert Cristo; photograph by Tom Killips.
07/15/07

TROY - While spending a sunny Saturday afternoon enjoying a tour through South Troy, partakers were also exposed to the pride residents are taking in what is now considered an up and coming neighborhood.

Throughout the House, Garden and Church Tour organized by resident Claire Davis, participants not only got an opportunity to view architectural treasures of the Osgood Neighborhood but also witnessed a bevy of residents sprucing up their homes and gardens.

"Instead of moving back to New York City or San Francisco, I'm more interested now in living here and being part of an up-and-coming community that's working to save their beautiful architectural history rather than tearing it down," said Carin Upstill, a transplant who now calls Third Street her home.

During the tour of 16 local sites, which included Davis' renovated Roman-style home on Third Street, the Osgood Firehouse and St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church, groups were impressed to see that so many homeowners were out painting their facades, doing home repairs and tidying up around their properties.

One of those property owners, Richard Hennessey, pointed out that economic development interest in South Troy has picked up, evidenced by the sheer number of properties that have been purchased recently.

"There's no doubt in my mind that South Troy is coming back big," said Hennessey, while painting the façade of his Ida Street home. "I see a tremendous amount of development in terms of old homes getting cleaned up.

"I first noticed it about three years ago with the whole Little Italy thing. ... Sometimes it takes only one spark of enthusiasm to create a domino effect," he added.

One of those sparks many local residents point to is Davis, who they dubbed "a force of nature" with boundless energy in advocating for the re-birth of South Troy.

Since moving into her once dilapidated yellow and white trimmed home topped with a V-shaped façade and Roman style columns in 1991, she has transformed it back to its original luster, both inside and out.

"When I bought it, everything had to be redone from the basement up - the foundation and to the roof - but I saw the potential," said Davis. "It had the right look and feel - good bones - but it needed a little tender loving care."

Davis said she organized the tour to showcase the potential of the neighborhood in hopes that more people will continue to invest in a community she considers a jewel. Those who took the tour said they couldn't agree more with Davis' assessment.

"The tour gave me the opportunity to go inside these grand homes I've only got the chance to see from the outside when I walk around the neighborhood," said Upstill, who once lived near Central Park in Manhattan.

"This is were I want to live now. ... It's one of the few areas in the capital region I love just strolling around in, looking at the historic architecture and seeing people hanging out on their stoops. ... Being from New York City that's something I missed," she added.

In addition to Davis's restored 19th Century home, the tour featured many unique features of the neighborhood. "Everyone knows about things like beautiful Tiffany stained glass windows at St. Joseph's Church, but they often don't know about the artifacts and paintings at the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church," said Davis. "That and so many other things make this area a touch of heaven in the city of Troy."

"To me it has a history that just speaks to me...it says take care of me and make me beautiful for the next generation and beyond to appreciate,' said Davis.

Besides her own home, Davis hoped people who went on the tour also took time to appreciate the homes, gardens, churches, restaurants and fire-houses that make up what is known as the Osgood Neighborhood.

BCon Preservation Design Studios I & II: Final Project Web Site

On May 5th, BCon students did a final presentation of the Upper Congress Street/Mt. Ida Neighborhood studio project at Troy's St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church. In spite of the glorious weather and the opening of Little League baseball, the meeting was well attended. (The image above is the 1845 City Engineer's Map by S. A. Beers, provided courtesy of the Troy Public Library).

The student presentation consisted mainly of a brief explanation of the studio's purpose followed by an overview of the neighborhood's history, student recommendations for the corridor's improvement, and a "walk-through" of the comprehensive web site the students developed as their final studio project. Although the studio strayed somewhat from its original adherence to revitalization based on the principles of Main Street (developing a broader neighborhood resource focus), I think the end result is great.

The web site has a TON of useful information and links to myriad resources within and outside Troy, as well as considerable information about the neighborhood's history, development, and building conditions.

The web site consists of the following sections:

• Purpose & Needs Statement
• History
• Demographics & Economics
• Natural Resources
• Zoning & Land Use
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
• Our Proposal
• Resources (included design guidelines developed by the students)
  
• Links

It is the hope of the students and faculty that this web site will be useful to the residents of the Mt. Ida neighborhood and serve as a model for other neighborhoods in Troy (and elsewhere). It is currently hosted on RPI server space, but will likely be relocated when we find a more permanent home for it, perhaps on the City of Troy's web site or some other local site from which it can continue to be maintained.

We hope you will check it out and find it useful! You can follow the link above or find it in the sidebar under Rensselaer and Troy links.

Neighborhood Revitalization: Troy's Little Italy Marketfest

When you've finished the Historic Prospect Park tour on Saturday morning (see post below), be sure to head over to Little Italy's first Saturday Marketfest. This event will be held at the former Troy Public Market, on Hill Street between Liberty & Washington Streets, behind the Vanilla Bean Bakery, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 28th.

Troy residents and visitors alike are invited to start off a family friendly day in Troy: drop by the Farmer’s Market and then come to Marketfest for delicious food and fun activities.

Murals created by the talented Questar III New Vision Visual and Performing Arts students and Construction Technology students will be dedicated at 11 a.m. This project was accomplished under the guidance of the Quester teachers: Peg Danner-Frank, Michael Garrish, and Joe Mix. The murals can also be viewed on Friday evening, April 27, during the successful “Troy Night Out” from 5pm to 9pm at the Art Center on River Street.

An array of flea market vendors will provide an assortment of goods and edibles such as fried dough, sausage and peppers, pizza, pasta fagioli, lemon ice, and Italian pastries all prepared by local eateries. Family entertainment will include a “bouncy bounce,” face painting, and balloon sculptures for the children, along with the “Backyard Circus” where children in the audience become the show. A martial arts display at 2pm will be provided by the school of Kaikihara-Aikido, run by Simon Burke-Lipiczky.

Take a trip down memory lane and visit a display of pictures and memorabilia, especially the old photos of the Marketplace collected from past and present residents in the Little Italy neighborhood.

Neighborhood Revitalization: Stylish Infill Housing

As readers of this blog know, the City of Rochester, New York, has been doing some interesting work in the areas of neighborhood organization, revitalization, infill housing design and construction, and realtor training. This previous post describes some of the programs the city and associated organizations have developed and implemented, and yesterday's New York Times had this small piece in the Currents column in the Home and Garden section (copy by Aric Chen, photographs by James Rajotte, 3/29/07)[I added web links]:

"Last week the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America, a nonprofit group based in New York City, and Habitat for Humanity completed the first of several low-cost houses they are collaborating on to “bring better architecture to the realm of affordable housing,” said Paul Gunther, the institute’s president. Although the three-bedroom, 1,400- square-foot house in Rochester cost just $90,000 (it was constructed by a volunteer crew), it has Greek Revival details that allow it to blend into the historic neighborhood, said Richard Cameron, the designer. Nilsa Rivera, 24, the local resident who was selected to live there, will move in this weekend with her 2-year-old daughter, her fiancé and her brother; in June the institute will publish “A Pattern Book for Neighborly Houses,” a guide to building well-designed affordable housing."

The Projects page of Flower City Habitat for Humanity's (Rochester, New York) web site has additional information on this and other projects, including an article (on their News page) from the Democrat and Chronicle about the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America's project, which is also being carried out in Savannah, Georgia, and Norfolk, Virginia. By visiting their web site (click link above), I also discovered their blog, The Classicist. I have not had a chance to do much more than skim its most recent postings, but it looks very promising, with many rich photographs of (what else?) classical buildings and interiors, accompanied by thoughtful commentary. I've added a link to the blogroll at right (scroll down!).

Downtown Revitalization: Albany, New York

Another great article in yesterday's Times Union was Chris Churchill's "Downtown homesteading," which describes seven planned, in progress, or recently completed large scale downtown housing projects in Albany, along with the efforts of several smaller scale residential improvement projects. Among the large scale projects are:

• Amos at Quackenbush Square - A $40 million, 11-story tower with at least 100 apartments proposed by Queri Development of Syracuse, New York;

• 733 Broadway - A $35 million, 9-story tower with 122 units proposed by Norstar Development USA of Buffalo, New York;

• Wellington Row - A $62 million, 14-story office tower with 15 condominiums proposed by Columbia Development Cos., Albany, New York;

• 33 N. Pearl Street - A $600,000 conversion and renovation with six apartments recently completed by Mike Urgo (upper floors above Jonathan's pizza parlor), Albany, New York;

• 109 State Street - $650,000 renovation with nine apartments currently under construction by AR Building & Construction, Albany, New York;

• 111-113 State Street, $630,000 renovation with 11 apartments recently completed by AR Building & Construction, Albany, New York; and

• 889 Broadway, undisclosed cost, conversion of four-story building and construction of four-story building with 44 condominiums.

The article reports that a market study commissioned by the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District and recently completed by Zimmerman/Volk Associates Inc. of Clifton, N.J., found that a market exists for about 2,400 housing units. As is true in many places where downtown housing is being constructed or renovated, it is hoped that increased choice and better quality of housing will help bring more people downtown.

The target markets are "empty nesters" and young professionals. Among the latter category is Matt Baumgartner, proprietor of Albany's popular Bomber's Burritos Bar (158 Lark Street) and Noche Lounge (895 Broadway) -- one of many young entrepreneurs creating notable arts, music, dining, and retail establishments in the Capital District's historic downtowns. He recently paid $225,000 for an old industrial building on Learned Street and plans to rehabilitate the building into two apartments, one of which he will occupy himself.

The article compares the Albany housing activity to similar situations in Denver, Colorado (Lower Downtown neighborhood), Boston, Massachusetts (Fort Point Channel area), Hartford, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island. It also states that in "the Capital Region, Albany has fallen behind cities such as Saratoga Springs, where hundreds of new apartments and condos have been constructed, and Troy, which has seen significant rehabilitation of older apartment units." The article continues:

Some say the Albany lag results from redevelopment decisions that brought Empire State Plaza and ubiquitous highway ramps.

"What you see there now is a consequence of years of tragic decisions," said James Howard Kunstler, the Saratoga Springs-based author of "Geography of Nowhere" and other books on the urban environment.

Added Saratoga Springs developer Jeffrey Pfeil, who is converting a former department store in Troy [the former Stanley (Gay) building at 3rd and State Streets] into apartments [to be called The Conservatory because of its proximity to the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall]:

"the incentive (for developing housing) in Troy is that it's got a wealth of fabulous architecture, and, unlike in Albany, most of the architecture wasn't torn down over the years."

The J.W. Pfeil Company also recently completed a project involving adaptive reuse of a former textile factory into the Powers Park Lofts condominiums (387 Third Avenue) in the Lansingburgh section of Troy. Available units sold out quickly.

Recent Preservation-Related News Stories

Just a brief post this morning. I'm working on a couple of other things, including a post about additional upcoming conferences and our first ever blog interview, but in the meantime, these articles were in recent editions of the New York Times:

• National Perspectives: A Portland [Maine] Community Forges a New Identity (Keith Schneider, 3/4/07), which describes redevelopment in Portland's downtown Bayside neighborhood, where the population is becoming highly diverse and a wide range of mixed-income housing has been created.
  

• Another Building By a Noted Modernist Comes Under Threat, This Time in Boston (David Hay, 3/7/07) which talks about the potential demolition of Paul Rudolph's 1960 Blue Cross/Blue Shield building at 133 Federal Street in the city's Financial District. The proposed demolition would make way for a new 80-story office tower designed by another noted architect, Renzo Piano. A modern house designed by Rudolph was recently demolished in Westport, Connecticut.
  

• Square Feet: A Waterfront That Has Left Its Wasteland Days Behind (Wendy Knight, 3/7/07) which describes Burlington, Vermont's nearly 20-year efforts to redevelop its formerly industrial and underutilized Lake Champlain waterfront.