just so happens the house, c1656, and a significant acreage of prime wet lands can be yours for 2.4m. surrounded by DEC land. the deed allows 5 parcels, I quote, 'a fine subdivision.' oxymoron asshole. how did that get past the conservancy lawyers.
Shaker Mill last summer
“The number of farms nationwide declined by 1% between 1987 and 1997, while the land in farms declined by 4.3%. During the same period, Columbia County saw an 18% decrease in the number of farms and a 14% decrease in the amount of acreage being farmed.” ... "Between 1999 and 2005, Columbia County lost 85 of its 560 farms along with 2,500 acres of farmland." ... "Median size farm in the Hudson Valley is 87 acres."
Interesting report on Land Trusts and Agricultural Land (pdf) from the Glynwood Center.
Columbia Hudson Partnership announces their commitment, in a press release, to shepherd empire zone monies into strengthening Columbia Counties agbiz. Lets us live in hope.
A lovely Soil Protection write up from Little Seed Gardens, and Here. An organic 97-acre farm family farm in Chatam New York.
Roxbury Farm, July 14 Newsletter.
The last photos I took with my Leica before I lost it the next day, deep in the beltway, Jan 08. I just got an old old digi sent out from Florida. Following this post the old bastard I used to document much of the Anti-Sit will be getting some face time.
The Times revisits the idea of "tower farms", a very New York version of allotments. One insight, from the chair of the Lincoln Institute, came shining thru, “Would a tomato in lower Manhattan be able to outbid an investment banker for space in a high-rise? My bet is that the investment banker will pay more.” Never the less, it makes for some great renderings, of impossible dreams. London's famous allotment program has been suffering wildly under the pressures of development, the city documents from which the below image was lifted.
These types of proposals have a certain history within the imagination of architecture & planning, much like the helicopter commute, wildly exciting and amazingly rendered, but hopelessly unhinged from the economic realities of land-use patterns. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than excited at the idea of moving food production & consumption within blocks of each other, but the decimation of even hi-functioning manufacturing (garment district) from the city core demonstrates how that principle does not translate when folks are willing to shell out $8,000/sqft for a condo. Again, the chair of the Lincoln Institute, "“There’s embodied energy in the concrete and steel and in construction,” which off-sets much of the carbon reduction. May I draw us back into more regionally appropriate solutions, whereas opportunities for transport (Hudson River), production (Dutchess/Columbia) and distribution (5boros) are already established, if even the smallest amount of leadership would make a committed effort to address food distribution patterns and their relationship to 'greening a city' we would be having a conversation that would engage reality, and make changes in the near-term. I'm not waiting for the Jetsons, because if we do, we'll be living like the Flinstones before long.
If I haven't stated this, I will now. They took Albany, put its Wild West Dutch Ass over a barrel and took the beating heart right out. There is no historic architecture left in Albany. Yes, Yes, some. But periphery, residential neighborhoods & a small amount of industrial, most of which dates post 1840. Sadly, wonderful Italianate brownstones don't constitute a historic building core for a 300 year old city. One of the oldest and most beautiful churches in Albany, 1 block from the Broeck Mansion decays St Josephs, a 3 steeple perch on Arbor Hil, boarded up since 1994 . Think of the old city of Quebec, but bigger, Dutch, and somehow frontier American. The farms, bricks, canal, and railroads. The dutch homes you see, & are described, below. All bulldozed. Hundreds of years of bad planning has taken the life from this town. Its still losing population. 2 hours north of nyc. Even Historic Albany, the one preservation advocacy organization (charged with stewardship of St Josephs) let its webpage expire in June. The following text and engraving are from 1789.
From the Albany 1756 census: "A List of the Inhabitants of the Citty of Albany in America with the Number of Troops they can Quarter conveniently within the Stockade and what they can Quarter in Case of necessity together with the fireplaces in Each house and Rooms without Fire, also what Rooms were occupied by the Respective Families as it appeared on a street Enquiry made in November 1756 . . . . . To which is added an Alphabetical List in Order more readily to find the peoples names, also an abstract of the number of Officers and men the Town can Quarter. N.B. Officers quarters are hearby understood to be Single Rooms.
Albany in 1828. House of the Dutch Governors.
We need farmland protection and investment. "We lose 2 acres everyday to development, whereas 84% of farmland borders the urban periphery"-> The American Farmland Trust is doing good things. Folks, it has to be local farms, regional food, efficiently integrated, distributed. Our over-industrialized waste stream is finally being put in check. Lets do this mid & upper hudson valley, for the local food revolution, for our fertile hillocks and fens. Because the NYC Metro could show the world a new agricultural paradigm. Don't just advocate open space, advocate for organic farming. The Times always has a way of making the yuppies resurgent interest, totally repugnant.
They f'ing approved the tax deal with Cappelli! Welcome a casino, Sullivan county. Blah. Bit - So... Cappelli's history of partnering with trump to build glassed grave markers in westchester brick towns sure qualifys him I guess. Not the right thing for the catskills, but we're glad its in sullivan county - where they roll like that. The big heads are looking up here with big shouldered clunkers, culdesacs and condos. Yikes. I'll hit the slots - that IT! Save our top soil.
Ang Lee's new woodstock film, looking for these particular scene shots. Interesting where this might be. Lastly, from the Historic Hudson website, Plumb_Bronson house, elevations by A.J. Davis. Somehow I missed this. Fantastic.
Portage, Representing Lower Union Street, 1st Ward, City of Hudson, New York.
The famous english henge is bluestone. The Catskills have some of the largest bluestone deposits in the world. 380 million year old sediment left by a massive delta formed on the western edge of the Acadian mountains in the Devonian Period. A working landscape, still working.
Times piece on the boom, from which the image above came. NYC preservation laws on bluestone sidewalks. And of course Opus 40 - in Saugerties. Brownstone care, the soft sedimentary cousin.
I had no idea that Regina Kellerman died this past May, bless her. An architectural historian of no compare.
And I never got to link this before. Hudson, yea we so happy! Welcome Marina.
Yea, I fucking Miss New York City.
Got a house, better live in it.
Heres a Toast to My Lady, Brooklyn.
Love my mom, amma, & afa; as well as our ancestral farm Úlfsstaðir, on this June 17th: Iceland National Day. The homestead below.
Mom in front of the ancestral church
we need to turn more land over to the pursuit of sustainable agriculture. a working landscape. support your local farmers.
of the blogosphere at Portage. I used to link these lovely folks out from Transfer. Peruse with pleasure.
The Times Magazine gave us a lovely & quite glossy look at contemporary thinking on cities and architecture, planning and development. But more importantly, hidden in the Asia Pacific section, we get a real glimpse of our urban future if we continue to triumph surface over substance. Perhaps we can hear less about all the sexy projects and more about the vapid politics of our urban future. Fuck Dubai. Fuck manufactured realities. These are people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/world/asia/09gated.html?hp
A 1990 Times article on the inevitable decline of the bb era in sullivan county.
And the slideshow to end all slideshows, ones' memories of the mountains. Strange.
the center for land use interpretation L.A./Troy,NY published the fascinating, Up River: Man-Made sites on the Hudson from the Battery to Troy
Hudsoncentric.
upstate new york, photo tour from one of our faves back in the city, massengale.
the pastures, from the roof of the capital, pre-plaza.
the best one article look you can get of the atrocity that is the plaza.
Albany
from the Colonial Albany Project
lifted from Art Deco in Albany, by Walter Richard Wheeler, published by the Historic Albany Foundation.
Almost a decade of working in the City of New York, the transplant has gone thru, I/m living at my 1807 in Hudson, and Albany is where I work. LMFAO. Weird. Anyways! Lots of good old urban shit coming outta Albany and Hudson. We'll be there, bitches. Along with all that new country love
the sound of hudson, yes, visit john doe books & records on warren st.
Anyone familiar with Manhattan real estate knows the Durst family, heck, anyone familiar the NYPost knows the Dursts (thanks Robert). What many folks in the Hudson Valley don't know is that the Durst Organization has been slowly accumulating massive parcels of land in and around Pine Plains. One of their colossal developments is the Carvel Property Development, in collaboration with golf resort developer Landmark. They recently submitted their draft DEIS. The Plan is massive, and disturbing.
The site as it exists includes: 140 acres of wetlands, 990 acres of prime and important farmland soils, 1,200 acres of undisturbed woodland, a 35 acre lake, & 35,000 feet of stream. These numbers from the Dutchess Land Conservancy
. Whats proposed: 951 homes on 1.5 acre lots, 16 miles of new pavement, and a 310 acre golf course. Condos, townhouses, and mcmansions. Here is their Own site plan (pdf); indeed, how vague a clue even this is and it still tells a horrible story. An abberation of land along the TSP and 199, Pine Plains will Never be the same. Imagine Florida off the Taconic, these people are not joking.
Pine Plains United is a coalition dedicated to raising awareness of runaway development in Pine Plains, they are the organizing committee against this monomanical plan.
James Sheldon, of Little Town Views , has some excellent coverage of this.
The Dutchess County Planning Department has recommended against the plan, saying essentially that this plan has no community character, useless open space (& pointless 'trails'), no affordability, and an insulting use of the word green: "In this project's current form, using the adjective "green" is nothing more than putting the proverbial 'spats on a pig'. "
The developers believe the Hudson Valley is the new baby boomer mecca for sunbelt style living. We cannot let the subdividing of our rural resources begin here. IT has to Stop.
Public Comment of Durst Draft DEIS
Fri Feb 29 7pm – Fri Feb 29 8:30pm
Stissing High School
Pine Plains, NY
PLEASE, if your unavailable to comment in person, submit comments in writing, mail them to the:
Town of Pine Plains Planning Board
Pine Plains Town Hall
PO Box 955
Pine Plains
New York, 12567.
-- Comments must be post marked no later than April 2nd, 2008 to be considered part of the official public record.
images scanned from Man-Made America: Chaos or Control? Yale 1963.
the tsp was begun in 1924, built in 4 major sections, coming to completion in 1965 at just over 105 miles. excellent history of the taconic state parkway from nycroads.com... "Roosevelt selected a route that would take motorists through a high, narrow ridge bounded by the Hudson River and the Catskills Mountains to the west, and by the Berkshire Mountains to the east. Unlike Moses, whose parkways encouraged the motorist to remain focused on the right-of-way, Roosevelt incorporated the sweeping landscape of rugged mountains and family farms into the design of the northern Taconic. This pastoral landscape supported his view of the history of the Hudson Valley."
David Deutsch & Teddy Cruz, HUDSON NEW YORK WE'RE SO EXCITED!! Read the New York Times write up.
One of the most famous pieces of industrial architecture on the Hudson River - Glenwood Power Station - is at great risk of demolition, and much to the bewilderment of any student of planning, the mayor is slobbering his approval all over the idea. In a below the crease back page article, the Times quotes, "We need jobs and economic activity, and if preservation efforts become a roadblock, this mayor is not going to support them.” Yea, tear down one of the most attractive and meaningful draws to rusty ole Yonkers, and put up some vapid slab of speculative garbage & reap those bribes, Mayor Amicone, thats vision! Wow, have we not learned anything in the last 40 years. Keep your eyes on the Amazing & Admirable Hudson Valley Ruins. In addition to the Glenwood Power Station, the Yonkers Masonic Lodge is at even greater risk, mentioned in the Times article and on HVR.org.
some photographs I took of the astounding domestic architecture of savannah ga. couth & understated, savannah is the humbler colonial city of the confederacy.
... next is the other, larger slaver's paradise, charleston.
Phebe Folger
Red Hook Concerns has been providing some excellent coverage of the post election wooha in Red Hook. Seems the republican old guard, who lost their majority in Dutchess County for the first time in 20 years, wasn't too happy about losing their majority on the Red Hook board. So the Supervisor elect (Sue Crane) stepped down, then appointed a replacement before the newly elected members (Democrats) took their seats. Slick eh? Say nothing of the legality of such moves, why this wasn't in the bylaws is beyond most. The public comment at the first meeting, after the strategically muted announcement, was civil - beyond Sue's smarmy & inexplicably vague responses to concerns. This is Democracy baby! No need to give away the juicy goodness that is the most recent meeting, now that this move has been given some traction (and a petition)... see the video at RHconcerns.
Why is any of this important? Land Use! Zoning is becoming a tremendously important issue as development pressures push northward. Stay tuned for more about the Dursts in Dutchess.
Heres the Poughkeepsie Journal coverage, and the Daily Freeman coverage.
some more old country
In an amazing (and all too rare) alignment of preservationists & housing advocates today's city council meeting was momentarily shut down in New Orleans. They were slated to approve the demolition (which they eventually did) of perfectly suitable, with minimal investment, historically & architecturally important public housing. The latest move in a continued ethnic cleansing of New Orleans in a ghastly post Katrina state of war against NO. Two weeks prior the City Council voted to evict the homeless, many of whom are working homeless, from a park across from City Hall. This also comes at a time when FEMA has just given notice to most of its trailer parks within New Orleans proper, that residents need to relocate on the first of the year. Merry Fucking Christmas New Orleans. Affordable housing, much less habitable housing, is an Extreme shortage, beyond even the most paranoid calculations. So it is with no surprise that todays meeting ended in hostilities, and it shouldn't be a shock that continuing dissolution in New Orleans demands resistance, calling on Preservationists, Architectural Historians, and Land Use Planners to align themselves not with Bullshit new urbanist drafts, but with those who have made that City one of America's most unique urban cultures. No Justice, No Peace. Related articles on the situation linked below.
NYT article on razing, with audio slideshow. AP coverage of today's events, as well as JusticeforNewOrleans.org, facts and myths on the demolitions. NYTimes video.
Many familiar with the planning & architecture online community know the infallible documentarian of the rowhouse form, herodotus. I thought it appropriate to share his photo gallery here, this is only a smattering of his exhaustive snapshot study of the American rowhouse, from the which the below photo is taken. Enjoy! click here.
Looking North, Pre-HUD demolition. Below appears an excerpt from Captain Franklin Ellis, written in 1878.
"This is a public ground, much frequented for the purpose which its name indicates, by the people of Hudson, who have always held it in high and deserved estimation as a place of popular resort.
It is a grassed and graded spot of about one and a half acres, upon the summit of the high promontory which rises from the river-bank, opposite the foot of Warren street, and is the western end of the ridge on which the city is built.
It has been in use as a public walk or promenade nearly or quite as long as Hudson has been a city. On the 9th of March, 1795, the proprietors resolved by vote "that the certain piece of land known by the name of the Parade or Mall, in front of Main street, and on the bank fronting the river, be granted to the common council forever, as a public walk or Mall, and for no other purpose whatever;" by which it is made sure that it had been in use as a promenade ground for a considerable time before 1795, long enough to have acquired the name mentioned in the resolution above quoted.
After the hill was donated to the city (but we have been unable to ascertain how long after that time) there was built upon it a house of octagonal shape, two stories high, the upper one being used as a lookout or observatory, and the lower one as a refreshment-room, which latter was never a desirable addition to the "attractions" of the place. Upon the erection of this structure the "Mall" received the name of "Round-House Hill," and continued to be so known until about 1835, when the ground was improved by the erection of a fence, the laying out and grading of walks, and the removal of the "round-house;" after which the name, being inappropriate as well as inelegant, was dropped, and, after some discussion and the suggestion of several high-sounding names (among which was "Paradise Hill"), that of "Parade Hill" was adopted, and continued in use for many years, but has now been generally discarded for the more appropriate one by which the hill is known at the present time.
During the past summer (1878) the ground has been improved and placed in the best condition. The walks have been re-graded and graveled, the grass-plats newly sodded, and a large number of comfortable seats placed in the proper positions. Along the entire river-front and southern end there has been completed a solid wall, commencing low enough to secure a firm foundation, and rising to a level with the grade, above which it is surmounted by a strong and handsome iron fence. When we approach the city by the river from the south, this fence is not at first seen, but the hill, standing boldly out to the river, with its towering flag-staff, and its steep escarpment crowned by the rampart-like wall, looks much like a fortification, and forms one of the most salient features in the city's outline."
Asher Durand.
Asher Durand.
