Stop ugly construction downtown

LARAC opens latest show

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In 2021, when I was still working at the Post-Star, I argued in an editorial the commercial benefits of a housing project at Glen and Bay streets outweighed the aesthetic benefits of the lawn and trees on the corner.

“We need the residents and their business more than we need that lawn,” the editorial concluded.

I’ve had second thoughts after taking a look at Chris Patten’s shoebox apartment building on Union Street and the two-building, 28-unit complex he is now putting up between Washington and Harlem streets.

This is the 20-unit apartment building Chris Patten built between Union Street and Goodwin Avenue in Glens Falls.

This is the Washington Street project Patten is building now, with the top corner of the Shaaray Tefila temple visible in the upper right corner

This is the lovely lawn on the corner of Bay and Glen streets that Patten was persuaded not to develop.

It was Patten who wanted to build on the lawn at Glen and Bay, across from City Park. A lot of people love that patch of grass, however, and also facing opposition from then-Mayor Dan Hall, Patten backed off and cast his gaze a block or two away.

The Union Street building is a gray box situated at the edge of a large parking lot. Not much positive can be said about its appearance, but it at least has some room around it and doesn’t stand on a major thoroughfare.

The complex on Washington Street, in contrast, has been shoehorned into place between Washington and Harlem streets and a couple of neighboring buildings. Passersby used to see Temple Shaaray Tefila on the corner of Bay and Washington, facing the edifice of Christ Church United Methodist across the road, but now the view of the temple is almost entirely obscured.

Glens Falls officials agreed to grant Patten setback variances for the complex, which is why the buildings have no breathing space. The officials probably felt grateful for Patten’s agreement not to molest the lawn near City Park, but Shaaray Tefila is paying for that gratitude.

Construction isn’t complete, so, perhaps, I’m being unfair to consider the new buildings on Washington a minor blight on a major through street. But judging from the gray utilitarian rectangle Patten put up on Union, I doubt we’ll have any aesthetic reason to celebrate this project.

Despite appearances, his apartments aren’t that cheap. A one-bedroom apartment in the Union Street building is listed on the Patten Property Management website at $1,150; a two-bedroom at $1,650.

So many wonderful old buildings and houses populate our city. Their variety and elegance is one of the great attractions of Glens Falls.

We have seen in Queensbury how one energetic builder — Rich Schermerhorn — can have an outsized effect on the look of the community by putting up one overlarge, blockish, boring housing complex after another. That effect could happen quicker and be more pervasive in Glens Falls, because the city is so small.

City officials should take a long look at future projects from Mr. Patten and ask themselves whether they want more of the few buildable spaces downtown filled with the uninteresting buildings he appears to favor.

Downtown housing is crucial to the prosperity of Glens Falls, but so is appearance. We’re lucky much of the wonderful old construction in the city has been preserved. When it comes to aesthetics, we’ve got a lot to lose.

Art

LARAC opened its latest show — “Where We Are” — Friday night at Lapham Gallery on City Park. Here are a few photos from the opening:

Painter Susan Hoffer, left, chats with a few fans, including Joy Muller-McCoola, middle, and Cathy DeDe, right.

Rachel Costello of Cambridge admires one of Hoffer’s works.

Scents

Scents are an underappreciated pleasure of the natural world. Recently, some of the bushes and trees in City Park have been giving off a wonderful, heady scent, including this bush with its profusion of pale purple flowers near the library’s corner:

I’m not sure what the name of this bush is, but its scent is heavenly.