Comments

shandor 412 days ago

I can't imagine anyone WOULDN'T want to see it restored to all its glory. So we would have to address its many deficiencies:

1) what compelling venue WOULD be appropriate? Troy music hall would compete with it, as would palace and schenectady proctor's. How is attendance in these places? Are they money makers?

2) what non-audience thing could go in there, while still keeping the building glorious and something people would want ot visit? A science and technology museum? A performance arts building? An Incubator?

3) once a compelling reason to have the building is found. How does it get restored?

3a need to get a damage assessment, how much to restore it

3b how do we get funding for it? Depending on what the building is, would decide hwo to get funding, if its private or public

I think the best place to start would be to throw some ideas about what could be in there. Take the top 5 ideas and see, with back of the envelope calculations and estimations what sort of draw it would have and then figure out operating and renovation costs.

alex 411 days ago

My current understanding is that RPI holds the deed to the property, but hasn't been able to figure out what to do with it. I think they wanted to hand it over to the city, which wanted nothing to do with it - the restoration would be far too expensive.

It would be really great to restore this building and make it usable again, but I think it is probably one of the most challenging buildings in Troy.

troyisgreat 410 days ago

I think you are right Alex, last I had heard it was RPI, so maybe it has not yet changed hands. I'd still like to know for sure.

I thought I had heard at one point that the restoration costs would be around $20 million. I'll have to check with a friend to confirm that.

RPI is spending ~$143 million building the EMPAC, I would think it would be something they could easily do for the city, and also utilize it themselves.

It's hard to think of what it could be used for, without having an idea of the space as it would be when restored.

Has anyone ever been inside?

shandor 410 days ago

No, I have not been inside, but for the sake of discussion, lets say its just like the palace theater. Now, what could we do with it?

toodiesel 398 days ago

I'm thinking you could use Proctor's the same way the Palace is used: host any performer that's willing to play there. This could be very useful as it's that right size (2,500 seats, 2,800 occupancy) between Revolution Hall (club) and the RPI Fieldhouse (arena). This article (http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/020802.htm) gives a fairly decent rundown on its size.

Here are some recent pictures:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v489/avkid/Proctors_Theatre/

toodiesel 398 days ago

also, here are pictures taken in ~2002 from the inside of Proctor's

http://www.openlens.us/album.asp?id=-756599489

alex 388 days ago

There is apparently a Yahoo! Groups e-mail list for a group called Friends of Proctor's (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProctorsFriends/) The group was quite active in 2000, but has no messages since 2002 - still, anyone interested in this issue might want to try to join. Unfortunately, given that 5 years have passed since the last activity, it's quite likely that the moderator's e-mail has changed or is defunct, and there would be no way for anyone not already a member to view the mailing list archives.

mcral 352 days ago

toodiesel - Thanks for sharing those pics!

I agree, I can't imaging anyone wouldn't want to see it restored. I also think I heard a number around $20-$30 million for restoration. That doesn't seem like too much.

tvan22 318 days ago

Those photos are awesome! Does anyone have any recent news regarding what is going on with Proctors? With all the development going on, I would think someone would have scooped it up by now.

aspinks22 108 days ago

This would be great, but what would we use the building for? I don't think Troy is ready for a grand theater there again. I don't think it would be able to draw traffic that way. Maybe if RPI got involved, and part of it was theater, and part apartments and offices?

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