In the spring of 2016, the Hudson Area Library moved to the Hudson Armory, a building acquired by Galvan Partners in 2011, renamed the Galvan Armory, and renovated to meet the needs of the library. The library entered into a thirty-year lease agreement with Galvan, for which it paid only $1 a month. Nine years later, the future is uncertain for the library. The armory is one of the buildings Galvan intends to give to Bard College, and it seems Bard may have the expectation that the library or the City of Hudson will buy the building from them. (The assessment rolls set the full market value of the building at $5,492,958. The City contributes $400,000 a year to the library's operating costs.)
Before any transfer of ownership takes place, Galvan is putting a new roof on the building. The slate roof has failed "due to age," and water is leaking into the library. Galvan is proposing to replace the authentic slate roof currently on the building with faux slate.
Last Friday, the proposal to replace the slate with asphalt "designed to replicate slate" was presented to the Historic Preservation Commission. The HPC was shown photographs of the material--in isolation and installed on buildings--but the opinion of the HPC was that it looked more like asphalt than slate.
HPC member Miranda Barry suggested that they review the artificial slate materials the HPC has approved in the past. HPC chair Phil Forman recalled they had reviewed "lot of applications for slate replacement." To Gossips' knowledge, the HPC has never approved artificial slate. A couple of projects were cited in the discusssion: 611 Union Street, where what was approved was faux cedar shakes not faux slate, and 501 Union Street, where genuine slate was used not faux slate. Genuine slate was also used in the restoration of 354-356 Union Street. The proposal for the mansard roof at 431 East Allen Street, the location of Catholic Charities, involved replacing cedar shakes with asphalt shingles, and the HPC suggested faux cedar shakes instead of asphalt shingles.
At some point in the discussion, HPC member John Schobel asked how old the slate on the armory roof was. Joshua Moon, who was presenting the project for Galvan, said he did not know but said it was very old. Someone on the HPC suggested it was 19th-century. In fact, it is probably early 20th-century. Construction of the armory was completed in 1898, but the building suffered a devastating fire on New Year's Eve in 1928.
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| Photo courtesy Hudson Area Library |
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| Photo courtesy Historic Hudson |
The HPC asked the applicant to provide an actual sample of the material being proposed and also to investigate alternative products meant to look like slate. A public hearing on the project has been scheduled for Friday, September 12, at 10:00 a.m.
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Last week I happened to drive thru Granville, NY, which is known as the "Colored Slate Capital of the World" due to its rare slate quarries that produce a variety of colored slate, including green, purple, red, and gray. I wonder if our library slate came from that source? It is right near the VT border in Washington County.
ReplyDeleteThe hollowness of Galvan’s bloviation about civic mindedness and community is epitomized by the fact that it never offered the Armory to the City. Now Bard, as it must, would have to sell it if it took title. Ideally, it will reject the Armory and Eric can rethink what all those words he’s been spewing for 20 years mean. But I wager neither will do the right thing and some private equity asshole will end up owning our library.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, we can all agree that Galvan's gift to Bard was hasty and ill considered. But what of Bard's own civic responsibility, as an institution acting in the public good? It has been weeks and to my knowledge, there has been not so much as a press release from Bard as to its plan for the library. Shouldn't the best interests of Hudson's residents enter into Bard's calculus? Did the parties even discuss this before the gift was announced? No one but the City of Hudson, which probably can't afford it, would likely want to buy this building. And if someone did, kids in Hudson will go months or years without reading material while the City moves its collection.
ReplyDeleteHere is what I know. The leadership of the library knew nothing about the intended gift before it was announced by Bard on July 7. It seems they were as surprised as anyone by the news. In early August, the library director and the president of the library board met with representatives of Bard (exactly who I don't know), but no information about that meeting has been made public.
DeleteBard’s primary responsibility is to its mission - education. The city’s interests don’t really figure in to that calculus. Look, for example, at the community killing behavior of both NYU and Columbia.
DeleteI have observed that the faux slate loses its defining lines and color in a decade or so. It just looks like ordinary asphalt shingles as it wears. A slate specialist may suggest alternatives to a total reroof. Problematic sections can be replaced for instance. Skilled slate craftsmen can accomplish this. Meantime, who's responsible for the library's upkeep? What a convenient time to unload this expensive headache.
ReplyDeleteIf Bard gets the building for free and wants to sell it to the City for five or ten million (the assessed value is probably underpriced), the thing to do would be to stay there for $1 a month until the 30 year lease is up, then move the library someplace else. Too bad the City thought it a good idea to sell off it's other properties.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if they sought or received approval but I seem to remember the reroof on134 136 Warren was done with fake slate.
ReplyDelete