"Demolition by Decay"

[GeogPlanner]

Albany, NY has started to see the end of a landmark...




The Hotel Wellington was built in the early 1900's on historic State Street in the shadow of the state capital. It had been the hotel for state legislators through the 1970's. It was last used by the University at Albany to house 200 students in the building's rear annex.




Closed for 20 years, the Hotel Wellington has decayed beyond repair. Also, the Hotel is on a site being considered for a possible convention center in Albany. In that plan, it has been suggested that the building facades could be saved and incorporated into the new building if and when it is built.

On the evening of Monday 8/16/04, a passerby noticed some debris falling from the facade of the hotel. Upon further inspection, engineers determined that the building's copper and wood cornice was "peeling" away from the building.



Once engineers safely removed the entire cornice, it was further determined that the eniter building had become unsafe due to all of the rain that has fallen this summer. According to officials, the building was last inspected in the spring of 2004 and it was deemed sound.




Officals plan to demolish the building floor by floor in the coming days.

Landmark's decay prompts road closure

[jordanb]

They should replace it with a massive plaza.

[GeogPlanner]

We already have one...

[jordanb]

Yeah, that was a whimsical allusion. B-)

[GeogPlanner]

I know...just trying to play along.

If this thing is demo-ed...it should be down by week'send I understand.

[Elisabeth]

So sad. It was recommended to the Preservation League of New York as one of the "7 to Save" for 2003. My main concern for this new convention center is what are people attending conventions going to do down there? Aside from drinking and, well, drinking, there isn't much to do in downtown Albany.

[Howard Roark]

So sad. It was recommended to the Preservation League of New York as one of the "7 to Save" for 2003. My main concern for this new convention center is what are people attending conventions going to do down there? Aside from drinking and, well, drinking, there isn't much to do in downtown Albany.

So this is being torn down for a convention center? Too bad, somebody should do a graduate thesis on site selection for large civic projects, they always seem to go in an area that has good reuseable building stock. I don't think that is by accident.

By the way, visual inspectio of those pictures looks like the building was in pretty good shape, outside of the crumbling parapet wall, I have worked on buildings that were much farther down the road to demolition by apathy than that.

[GeogPlanner]

I think at this point, people are happy to preserve the facades at the very least. I'd like for this building's facade to be removed brick by brick and cataloged for incorporation in a new development. I think that most of the buildings may be obsolete in terms of wiring, set up, access...etc...but I think facade preservation should still be possible.

On Friday of this week, there was a protest organized against the demolition and one of the protestors is having thier own engineering report developed...it should be intersting...but this is Albany after all.