All Over Albany

A new complex for UAlbany, and a few thoughts about the future of the Harriman State Office Campus

A rendering of the Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex (ETEC).

UAlbany will be building a new complex on a chunk of the Harriman State Office Campus for the new College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, the Cuomo admin formally announced today.

That's a rendering of the complex above. Here's a larger version, along with an aerial view of the complex's position on the Harriman campus.

The development -- called the "Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex" or ETEC -- will be on 12 acres in the southwest corner of the Harriman campus. (Yep, that's the portion right next UAlbany's uptown campus.) It'll house both the new college and New York State Mesonet, the statewide weather monitoring system that's currently being rolled out.

Press release blurbage:

The $184 million project will be financed through $92 million in previously appropriated State capital funds grants as well as $92 million in previously appropriated Campus-funds. It is anticipated that 1,600 construction jobs will be created by the project. When fully occupied, the complex will become an active hub of research, instruction and business development, with some 1,000 daily occupants including faculty, researchers, industry partners, and students. Site planning is underway and construction is expected to begin in 2017, with completion targeted for 2020.

About the Harriman campus and the city of Albany

The Harriman campus is ongoing issue not just for the state, but for the city of Albany -- because it's enormous, roughly 330 acres within the city limits. And it's tax exempt, a fact that Albany leaders routinely bring up when banging the drum for more state aid.

Every few years talk bubbles up about the state turning over some of the campus to private development -- taxable private development theoretically -- and then it fades. There's again word now that state will soon be issuing some sort of request for development proposals for the campus. It would seem the eastern end of the campus -- the part along Route 85 -- where the state has knocked down a couple of buildings in recent years would be the most likely candidate for this sort of development. [Biz Review] [Politico NY]

It'll be interesting to see if anything shakes out of the new push. In some ways the Harriman campus is like the Empire State Plaza -- big and closed off from the rest of the city. Sure, it doesn't have the fortress walls or imposing verticality of the ESP, but the Harriman campus layout -- and its two ring roads, specifically -- separate it from the rest of Albany.

There's understandable skepticism whenever officials talk about doing some sort of study or plan for a major project. Consultants get hired. Reports are written. And then, very often, not much happens. But the Harriman campus might be a case where something like that -- a formal planning process, public meetings, the whole thing -- could really help.

For a while there was talk of the state emptying out of the campus. But that's pretty clearly not happening -- it built a new lab building there a few years back, and it recently completed a major renovation of another building. And now there's this UAlbany complex going up on the southwest corner. And maybe there will be a dedicated busway making its way through at some point, too.

So, what's the overall plan? Is there an overall plan? Can the campus be better integrated with the surrounding city? Should it? Does the city of Albany -- both its leaders and residents -- get any say about what's to happen?

There's a big opportunity here because of all that land. It'd be unfortunate if, by adding a piece here and piece there without an overall vision, the state somehow ends up with a new Harriman campus that's less than the sum of its parts.