Drawing: Tickets for BUILT

historic albany BUILT 2014

Drawing's closed!

The Historic Albany Foundation's annual BUILT art event is this Saturday, November 1 at the currently-being-redeveloped DeWitt Clinton Hotel in downtown Albany. We have a pair of tickets and we're giving them away.

To enter, please answer this question in the comments:

If you could build anything in the Capital Region, what would it be?

It could be something totally new. It could be rebuilding (so to speak) something old into something new. Whatever. We'll draw one winner at the random.

BUILT is an exhibit and auction of artwork inspired by Albany's built environment, and is a fundraiser for HAF's programming and technical services. And as a bonus this year, attendees will get an early look at the event spaces in the DeWitt Clinton, which is being transformed into a boutique hotel.

The event is from 7-10 pm on Saturday, November 1. Tickets are $78 each and available online.

Important: All comments must be submitted by 5 pm on Tuesday, October 28, 2014 to be entered in the drawing. You must answer the question to be part of the drawing. (Normal commenting guidelines apply.) One entry per person, please. You must enter a valid email address (that you check regularly) with your comment. The winner will be notified via email by 10 am on Wednesday, October 29 and must respond by 10 pm that day.

AOA is a media sponsor of this event.

Comments

More access to the river in Albany

A waterfront people adore.

Wegman's!

A grocery store between Arbor Hill and Pearl Street, it would be even more of an incentive to live downtown and would get rid of the food desert in Arbor Hill.

Mixed use multi media space including sound stage for recording artists, filmmakers for rental, performance, artist storage, and classroom space.
Do Affordable artist housing like the space in Abor HIll - close to rail station for accessibility to the city.

I would build a ferry that goes between Albany and Troy.

I would build a vibrant downtown that is open at night and on weekends! Shops, book, home goods, art and clothing stores, restaurants, all in one walkable space.

I would build myself a "tiny house" with a view of the river, green vistas, and mountains. I yearn for a "room with a view" (not the vinyl siding of nearby houses).

Historic re-creation of a Dutch village or at least a colonial Dutch home in downtown Albany!

Move all the retail stores from one of the local malls to Downtown Albany!

A raw bar on the waterfront with an oceab feel!!!

High speed rail, for reals.

A large dog park in the Troy area.

A skydiving simulator.

Kinda like this: https://sfbay.iflyworld.com/

Ferris Wheel!

pedestrian bridge across the hudson.

My dream project build would be to re-engineer 787, replacing it with a NYC style subway system that inter-connects our greater Capital District and then overhaul the waterfront in Albany.. oh to dream!

rooftop green spaces.

Rebuild Albany High School. We have modernized elementary and middle schools.... its time for AHS to get out of the seventies!!

To succeed it would need much more than a building, but a second Albany high school with all the amenities. Albany needs residents / more taxpayers and a high quality school would bring more people to downtown making it easier for the city to pay for other fun projects.

A mid-sized theater concert facility....

If I could have ANYTHING it would be a dome that kept Albany at 70 degrees year round. More realistically, a planet fitness in walking distance of downtown.

I'd build an open air market where the old one used to be down the middle of State Street between Eagle Street and Pearl Street.

A boardwalk!

A subway and suburban rail system.

I've always been impressed by the Postdamer Platz in Berlin, with its holistic use of mix-use development (commercial, residential, entertainment, covered out-door plazas, links to mass transit). I've long thought something like this downtown would be a wonderful way to bring poached retail back downtown and encourage more dense urban living (a banker could live in a condo within the same building as his office, while doing his/her shopping down in the concourse below).

This development could even be linked to the waterfront (pedestrian bridges), to further tie the natural element in, beyond the vast vistas provided by the arching windows. For example, LL Bean could re-locate here, providing kayak demos on the Hudson or snowshoeing trips in the winter through the Corning Preserve. The possibilities are endless and enticing.

Where to site this? I'm all for re-adapting buildings, but I think the ugly, giant white building downtown could be torn down for something like this. Great location to tie in mass transit, like a link to Amtrak and/or place the CDTA mass transit hub here (rather than at the former Convention Center site), with an extension of the BusPlus Red line terminating here and integration of the future Purple and Blue lines.

For some interior pictures and info (way more than you want to know), follow these links:

http://www.goodsearch.com/search-image?keywords=potsdamer+platz%2C+interior

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdamer_Platz

A greenhouse in Washington Park

I would revive the light passenger rail system between all major cities in the Capital Region.

I would build community

A professional sports stadium. (Either football or baseball)

walkable communities

A historic settlement reenactment village, a la Colonial Williamsburg, or Epcot. The amount of history that seems to be buried under overpasses and developments in this area is frankly astonishing. It would be amazing to have a district showing what different areas used to look like.

A light rail system between Albany and Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga.

Trolley system!

If I could build ANYTHING, it would have to be the self esteem of all people. If you can get people feeling good about themselves, it's only a matter of time before it begins to rub off on others and shared. If people feel good about themselves, think about where everything could build from there.

A large, Macy's-like department store downtown.

Light Rail between Troy and Albany.

A light rail system that would allow for the demolition of 787 and rejuvenation of the waterfront.

A more vibrant/artsy downtown area

I would rebuild the original Troy City Hall that was destroyed by fire.

I'd bury I-787 so that there would not be so much highway noise in the Corning Preserve. I'm move the Alive at Five concerts to Washington Park to avoid the traffic noise droning during the concerts.

I'd like to see solar panels on all feasible roof tops and parking garages.

I'd build a restaurant on top of the corning tower so you could have dinner with a view.

high speed rail

a 787 big dig

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