About the HHA Redevelopment Project

At the Hudson Housing Authority Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, John Madeo of Mountco, HHA's development partner, updated the board on the status of the project, in particular on things that had transpired at the Planning Board meeting on February 10. He reported it as a significant step forward that the Planning Board had declared itself lead agency in the SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) process. He also reported that Mayor Joe Ferris, who intends to appoint a new engineering consultant for the Planning Board, has agreed to have Chris Bertram from Barton & Loguidice continue as the engineering consultant for the HHA project. This is considered a win for the project, because it will save the time involved in having a new engineer get up to speed with the project. Madeo and HHA are hoping the Planning Board will complete its site plan review in four months.  

 

Madeo also commented on things that were said about the design at the Planning Board, based on the elevation drawings that had been submitted. Those drawings are shown below.

It will be recalled that, on February 10, Planning Board chair Ron Bogle had this to say about the design as shown in the elevations: 

. . . we're not going to talk about the design tonight, because we don't have a lot of information yet. We've seen your elevations. But I will tell you we have work to do, because there's an awful lot of the mid-1960s DNA still existing. We need to look at it, we need to study it, and we need to understand what does it feel like to be a human being and a family living in that space. How do we make it the best possible experience for them? We cannot simply do what we've done in the past, but look at the paths forward in terms of how we think about investing our time, money, in these people's lives and in our community.

Presumably responding to this statement, Madeo told the HHA that the Planning Board had concerns about the design. Madeo reported that members of the Planning Board "did not want the development to look like a stereotypical housing project from the '60s and '70s . . . a big brick building with no character." About this he commented, "I think we all agree on that." 

He went on to speak specifically about the building proposed for Site B, on the north side of State Street.

Of the building, Madeo said, "It's a long building, and you don't want it to read as a big industrial building or a public housing type building, and the way to address that is to create sort of setbacks. As you go along the building you set a portion of it back. It breaks up the building and it gives it more character, and it will make the building look better."

It would seem that Madeo has only the most superficial understanding of what Bogle meant when he spoke of the persistent DNA of 1960s public housing. Nor does it seem there is much concern about the buildings being compatible with the historic architecture of the city that surrounds the HHA site. Staggered setbacks are certainly not a characteristic of the architecture of Hudson and would be yet another way of setting the development apart from the more prosperous part of the city just a block away.

Madeo said the architects were working on renderings to show what the buildings will look like to present to the Planning Board on March 10. They are also working on construction drawings, because, as Madeo said, "We don't see the buildings significantly changing." 

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