Adaptive Reuse--Elsewhere and Here

There's an article in Chronogram that definitely merits attention: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Adaptive Reuse." The article mentions specifically industrial buildings in Kingston, Poughkeepsie, and Newburgh that have been adapted for various new uses, one example being the Lace Mill in Kingston (shown below), which has been transformed into a complex of affordable artist housing and gallery space by RUPCO (Rural Ulster Preservation Coalition).

Photo: David Miller|Chronogram

Sadly, Hudson doesn't have many historic industrial buildings left that are candidates for adaptive reuse. The last survivor of the complex of buildings that was Hudson River Knitting Mills was destroyed by fire in 2017. (The other buildings in the complex were demolished, in the interest of public safety, in 2009.)

What remain of the historic industrial buildings in Hudson that are candidates for reuse are the Dunn warehouse, owned by the City of Hudson, which continues to crumble while the City grapples with the question of whether or not it can spend any part of the $1.5 million in grant money to stabilize the building without partnering with a private developer . . .

the Gifford-Wood factory at the end of Hudson Avenue, which is currently on the market for $7,625,000 . . . 

Photo: Virginia Martin

and the privately owned former Union Mills building, now known as the Pocketbook Factory, on North Sixth Street.

The Pocketbook Factory has been empty and virtually unused for more than a decade. According to a Gossips source, roof failure is now putting the building at risk.

To quote that source, "Someone with access to capital has to take over soon, or we will lose another one."

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