Ockawamick, as some readers will remember, is an abandoned elementary school, once part of the Taconic Hills School District, located on Route 217 in the Town of Claverack.
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| Ockawamick School in 2008 |
In 2008, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors purchased the building for $1.5 million. The plan, which was lavishly researched and vigorously promoted, was to relocate the Department of Social Services to that location and make the building the centerpiece of a new county "campus" at the geographic center of the county . . . six miles from the county seat. The plan met with passionate protest, and eventually it was abandoned.
In 2014, the building was sold at auction for $502,500--about a third of what the Board of Supervisors had paid for it six years before. If memory serves, the purchaser of the building at that time was the late Eleanor Ambos.
Today, the New York Times reports on the latest development in the building's post-academic life: "An Abandoned School Becomes a Canvas for Art Galleries." Here is the lede from the article:
In a spirit of cooperation, six midsize art galleries are extending their reach beyond Manhattan with the purchase of a sprawling abandoned school in Columbia County, N.Y., that will be inaugurated as a new exhibition platform called the Campus on June 29.
This picture, showing the building today, accompanied the article.
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| Photo: Yael Eban and Matthew Gamber, via The Campus |
Toxic mold is what I remember about that entire episode.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that a bunch of NYC art galleries would move into that abandoned school on the road to Philmont is so absurd it's laughable. These guys have really drunk the Kool-aide.
ReplyDeleteAbsurd?? The six Ockawamic partners just bought a building that the county said was worth $1.5 million 10 years ago for probably less than that and with real estate being what it is today on CC and assuming that the group is willing to invest another million or so in it which they will - It is quite possible that they just landed on top of a great investment (art studios, shops, market, Brewery?, art fair??) building rental, artist retreat, art exhibitions, marketing & PROMOTION) for maybe $375,000 each; which is the low end price of one of their artists artworks. Art takes bold vision something sorely missing with Columbia County executives outside of Hudson. Remember how much nonsense & guff the town fathers of Kinderhook put in front of Shainman when he bought The School - in the name of good old boy status quo? Yet 98% of the good fortune that has landed in CC since 2014 has been from NYers...This venture will pay off in future dividends (see revised Warren St., Foreland in Catskill, The School in Kinderhook, Dresser's Long Pond Recording Studio outside of Hudson, continued real estate revival in CC unseen before, etc.etc.etc.)
DeleteI strongly disagree. I think it's a very positive development, and something of a bright light in the midst of all the local Hudsonian fog of mismanagement and fecklessness. The project will not only be good for the upstate art scene, which is continually getting stronger and more interesting. But another art destination can only benefit the local economy. It's like the positive side of Hudson's recent evolution, i.e., the way the resurgence of the town and the rebuilding of a large portion of the housing stock was accomplished solely via the entrepeneurship of private citizens, in spite of, and completely separate from, the ineptitude of the local government. I'm glad it's happening!
ReplyDeleteAgree.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of real estate you are correct, it is positive. The next thing coming is investors buying up as many properties in Philmont as they can, because the act of installing an art destination and buying properties will inflate the values. The march of money and local displacement continues!
ReplyDeleteInvestors arrived in CC about 15 yrs ago...
DeleteSmall detail, building was actually a high school
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