The Architect for 701 Union Street

Hudson has had its share of notable architects who have designed buildings in the city--among them, Alexander Jackson Davis, who refitted and expanded Dr. Oliver Bronson's house and also John Gaul's house; Marcus Reynolds, who designed a mansion for Morgan Jones, inspired by Dutch and Jacobean buildings that struck his client's fancy while traveling in Europe; Whitney Warren and Charles Wetmore, who took time out from working on Grand Central Station to design a new courthouse for Columbia County and later designed a new building for the Hudson City Savings Institution; R. H. Shreve and William Lamb, who designed a new building for Farmers National Bank the year before they began their most famous project: the Empire State Building; Edgar Tafel, a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the rectory and offices for Christ Church Episcopal.

Now another noteworthy architect is working in Hudson, on what may seem to be an unlikely project: the adaptive reuse of 701 Union Street as the police and city court building.

The architect working on the police and court building is Richard Franklin, principal of Franklin Associates, Architects/Planners, who was awarded the project, as city regulations require, because he submitted the lowest bid.

Photo: St. Louis American

Franklin was the first African American to graduate from the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis. Before forming his own architectural firm in 2011, he was an associate partner with Davis Brody Bond, where he was involved in such high profile projects as the restoration of the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the construction phase of the 9/11 Memorial Museum, and the design for the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.

Photo: Allan Tannenbaum-Pool|Getty Images

Two weeks ago, Alderman Nick Haddad (First Ward), who is the point man on the Council for the police and court project, told Gossips that the final design for the new facade of 701 Union Street, which is different from the preliminary drawing done by John O'Connell, is now getting some fine tuning. He expects that a "final iteration" will soon be ready for display at City Hall. Haddad also indicated that the design will be submitted for review by the Historic Preservation Commission.

At the informal Common Council meeting on October 14, Haddad reported that the architect is preparing the bid documents for the project and bids are expected to be in before the new year. The projected completion date for the new police and court building is September 2015.
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