Strong Place Church Conversion In Full Swing
The process of converting the Strong Place Church into 24 residential condos is in full swing, as these photos show. Although the project is reported to be as preservation-friendly as possible, the reader who sent these photos in was struck by the large chunks of brownstone accumulating in the dumpster. Wonder what will happen to…
The process of converting the Strong Place Church into 24 residential condos is in full swing, as these photos show. Although the project is reported to be as preservation-friendly as possible, the reader who sent these photos in was struck by the large chunks of brownstone accumulating in the dumpster. Wonder what will happen to them? If anyone knows the developer, it would be fun to get some interior action shots of the reno.
Strong Place Church: Next Step, Scaffolding [Brownstoner]
Inside the Strong Place Church [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark DOB
The brownstones are from holes we are making on the interior of the wall related to the structural work we are doing.
We have saved quite a bit of the woodwork and the rest of it was taken by interested parties. We have done our best to make sure that as little as possible makes it into the dumpster.
The outside walls are in great shape and will be restored along with the windows, roof, doors, ironwork, and sidewalk.
We will take pictures of the interior in a week or so and pass them along to the brownstoner.
they were selling church pews and even elaborate stonework from some windows to an antique hardware dealer the other day. i saw them loading the trucks.
New, excellent quality brownstone can be ordered from quarries in the US and the UK. The Catholic cathedral in Albany is being largely refaced with new brownstone from the Saint Bea’s quarry in the UK. It costs a lot. But so does a good stucco-brownstone job. Either way the old stone needs to be chipped back or removed entirely. It was never a good material. People were complaining about it failing a hundred years ago.
New Brownstone, or new Brownstone flovored stucco. I allways wonder if there is a better way. If you see original cut brownstone next to the resurfaced stuff it looks way better. Im sure it costs a fortune to add a real brownstone facade but the way they chip the brownstone off, add cement, then a layer of stucco bothers me. Am i the only one who thinks about this?
I don’t know, I also live in the area and am not at all struck by the ‘large chunks of browstone’ filling the dumpster. The exterior of the church has been in a state of disrepair for years, with lots of large crumbling areas and many other areas obviously near collapse. From what I can see the only areas being removed are areas beyond repair, and there are a LOT of areas on the outer walls beyond repair. So far the developer seems to be pretty respectful of the exterior integrity of the building, and it appears largely intact. Whatever areas have been removed hardly seem egregious, more practical than anything else. And from what remains it appears that they’ll eventually resurface it…with NEW brownstone!
the architect is Ben Baxt, if you want to contact him for details.
The dumpster is gone this AM. What was inside hardly looked like it was going anywhere but the dump. The interior is competely gutted, which is what the plans called for, I believe. It is basically a roofless shell.