At the Town Meeting discussion on March 17, President Shirley Ann Jackson announced the plan to create a new monument, which has been described as a gateway, on campus. The new structure will be put at the corner of Eighth Street and Peoples Avenue, and will welcome drivers and pedestrians entering campus from this direction.
Vice President for Administration Claude Rounds gave more details of the planned construction. Rounds compared the plans for this new monument to the current structure found at the corner of College Ave and 15th Street, in front of Academy Hall. “The new structure will be something similar to that,” stated Rounds.
Rounds believes this new gateway will “complement” the Institute, based on the way the structure on College Ave and 15th Street looks. It will have an appearance similar to the existing structure in that it will have a rod iron fence with brick piers and will be “consistent with details, and brick architecture, around campus,” according to Rounds.
“The structure will also operate as a retainer wall,” he explained, also mentioning that it will have a Rensselaer sign on it.
One building, 164 Eighth St., will need to be demolished to make space for the new structure. Rounds explained that the costs of repairs necessary to bring this building up to code were calculated to exceed it’s estimated value. Demolition will be performed along with other Institute projects, and separate from the construction of the gateway.
The City Planning Board approved the plans for the gateway on March 27. Rounds detailed that the demolition of the building will begin sometime in April, with construction beginning in May or June, and completing in July. Russ Reeves, Troy’s city engineer, expressed his approval of RPI’s construction plans, stating “We are very excited about the improvements [these plans will make] to the neighborhood.”
