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NISKAYUNA
Stanford move to be delicate, pricey
350-foot trip will cost $250,000; critics worry building will crumble
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

Moving the historic Stanford home will be a
delicate operation that will take about two months,
Highbridge Development President John Roth said Tuesday. ALSO And once it’s moved, it won’t INSIDE rest on the ground for days while the new foundation is completed beneath it.
    The operation is to begin next
week, now that the company has gotten the last approval it needs from the Niskayuna Planning Board. On Monday night, the board unanimously granted Highbridge permission to move the mansion — more recently known as the Ingersoll home — to the edge of State Street.
    Roth said, “We’ll start prepping the building, removing anything that’s hanging.”
    The boarded-up windows will be filled in, temporarily. The entire exterior will become a smooth wall.
    Then workers will drape chains around the whole structure so it can be jacked up and rolled 350 feet down a temporary road to its new home. The plan calls for many chains to avoid undue pressure on any one area.
    Opponents to the moving plan fear the building will crumble, but Roth said the chains will work. “It will be covered with chains. It will not fall apart.”
    Meanwhile, others will be preparing the new foundation. But they will only put in the footings. When they fi nally jack the mansion off the ground, likely in September, they will attach pins to the corners, recording their precise locations. The footings, too, will be located with GPS coordinates.
    “They’ll drive it over on dollies, with remote control,” Roth said.
    The goal: to bring the mansion to the footings and then move it millimeter by millimeter until it lines up perfectly with its new foundation.
    When every measurement is right, it will be lowered — but not all the way to the ground.
    “It’ll stay on these big steel beams that span the hole,” Roth said. Workers will complete the foundation beneath it.
    The entire operation will cost Highbridge about $250,000, Roth said.
    “I’m putting a tremendous amount of money into this,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t risk it if he thought the building would be destroyed. ..................>>>>..................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00102&AppName=1

Unadulterated Schenectady / Facebookhttp://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000346832617

Reputable, experienced building movers have moved much larger buildings  .. for example the Hatteras Lighthouse .. I don't see why moving the Stanford Mansion should be that difficult.

My biggest complaint about the whole project .. is that Niskayuna seems to be heck-bent on developing every square inch of space in the town.

Saint James Square .. used to be a nice area .. now it is overbuilt.

Niskayuna used to be a nice place -- but with the overbuilding -- I don't think it is anything special anymore.  

Same for Clifton Park -- I remember when the area off exit 9 was basically just  pine barrens -- beautiful .. now it is all blacktop and buildings
Clifton park should be renamed  Clifton ParkingLot  

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,
      With a boutique, Red Robin and a swingin' night spot.

      Who needs trees? They block parking spaces for nonexistent retail.

Does anyone care? Obviously not since they all got re-elected! How funny!

Put it out of it's misery already......move on.......dont even move the behemoth........

Quoted from benny salami

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,
      With a boutique, Red Robin and a swingin' night spot.

      Who needs trees? They block parking spaces for nonexistent retail.

You sound liek a 1960's hippie.

You read liek{sic} you need spellcheck.

BTW - the Paradise mentioned in that song .. was the old Paradise Theater on either Santa Monica Blvd or Sunset in LA .. and the theater was torn down to make way for a parking lot.

I like the song (must make me a hippie, too) but i prefer the Eagles song
"the Last Resort" when I get in a pinko, socialist, enviromentalist-wacko mood  

The mess that they have made out of this area already.....I say just knock it down. What's the sense now? It is just a building. A building that has already lost it's character.. So take the thing out of it's misery. The damage has already been done and appears to be irreversible at this point!

Knock 'er down!

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NISKAYUNA
Stanford Home move challenge heads to court
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net

    Opponents of a plan to move the historic Stanford home off its original foundation will have a chance to argue their case in court next week, but Highbridge Development can continue with the relocation process until then.
    Friends of Stanford Home, a grass roots group that sued to block the development of the property altogether, filed for a temporary injunction to prevent workers from preparing the historic structure for the move. The group asked that the injunction remain in place until they had a chance to dispute the Niskayuna Planning Board’s approval of a site plan modifi cation that would move the structure from its original foundation to a site about 350 feet away.
    But state Supreme Court Judge Barry Kramer refused to order a stop to the preparatory work being done on the building. Instead, he agreed to allow attorneys from both sides to present arguments Sept. 3. .....................>>>>...............>>>>..........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01602&AppName=1

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Ingersoll developer defeats critics
By Paul Nelson Staff Writer
Published: 04:10 p.m., Friday, September 3, 2010

NISKAYUNA -- A judge has rejected a petition by a preservation group seeking a temporary injunction to block a developer from moving the historic Stanford Home at the Ingersoll site, attorneys involved with the case said.

Developers plan to make the building the centerpiece of Mansion Square, a shopping mall.

The Friends of Stanford Home had also asked state Supreme Court Justice Barry Kramer for a fresh comprehensive environmental review, arguing that the special-use permit approved in 2007 by Town Board was no longer applicable because Highbridge Development of Schenectady submitted an amended plan last month. Kramer also denied that request during Friday's hearing in Schenectady.

Outside of court, Highbridge CEO John Roth said his firm is ready to advance the project.

"I feel he was 100 percent correct in his decision," Roth said. "We really feel the project will be a beautiful one when it's all done."

He said the firm has begun preparation on the 12-acre site at the corner of Balltown Road and State Street and hopes to move the home during the week of Sept. 20.

Under revised plans, the home will be shifted about 350 feet to face Balltown Road and then leased for retail or office space.

Highbridge has said the shopping plaza would feature "shops, restaurants and other retail uses that provide shoppers with an upscale Niskayuna shopping and dining experience." The firm has several leases and letters of intent from potential tenants, Roth said.

Niskayuna Town Attorney Peter Scagnelli also hailed Friday's court decision.

Alex Brownstein, who argued for the preservation group, said his clients are considering appealing the rule within the 30-day period, but said time may be against them.

The Niskayuna lawyer said the decision sets a "disturbing precedent," opening the door for developers to submit seemingly "innocuous" site plans and then come back and modify them with little or no scrutiny by planning officials.

He said Highbridge's original site plan left the mansion at its current location, something the Friends of Stanford Home have supported for years.

"You're doing something that was never contemplated or discussed," he said of the Planning Board approval in late July of the builder's revised plan.................>>>>................>>>>............http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Ingersoll-developer-defeats-critics-644443.php

kill it already.......

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Home stays for now
By Scott Waldman Staff Writer
Published: 12:00 a.m., Monday, October 4, 2010

NISKAYUNA -- The years-long battle over the fate of the Stanford home has entered another round.

A state Supreme Court justice on Friday issued a temporary restraining order that bars movement of the mansion, which was built in 1816 and purchased in the 1850s by Josiah Stanford, the father of future California governor and Stanford University founder Leland Stanford.

A development firm plans to turn the 12-acre site on which the home sits at the corner of Balltown Road and State Street into an upscale shopping and dining complex. Plans for the historic mansion, which is in a state of disrepair, call for it to be shifted about 350 feet to face Balltown Road and then leased for retail or office space. The original idea was to turn it into a restaurant.

The Friends of the Stanford Home group has opposed moving the house because that would disqualify it for status on the national registry and from potential federal money for its restoration, attorney Alex Brownstein said Sunday.

"If they move it even an inch, it becomes ineligible and they lose out on grants," he said...............>>>>.................>>>>.....................http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Home-stays-for-now-686139.php

Euthanasia would be well used here.....