In a last-ditch effort to save St. With Garden City's stately St. Paul Museum in limbo after three decades, environmentalists are relying on the study to determine next steps.
On Oct. 21, the village surveyed residents to determine whether the nearly 140-year-old building should be preserved or demolished. To be included on the ballot, residents must vote in person or by mail. The majority – 60.7% – of the 4,339 residents who responded to the survey said they wanted to keep the building. This survey is optional.
Historic preservation advocates praised the building's history and architectural beauty and saw it as an opportunity to create a community center for the village's nearly 23,000 residents. Opponents say the cost of restoring and restoring the building would be too high for residents.
To finance it, villages may have to borrow by issuing bonds or seeking alternative financing.
"Projects for the Palace of San Paolo"
Mayor Mary Carter Flanagan said polls show the village has support to continue efforts to save the building.
“Our goal is to move forward and develop plans for the St. Paul building. A plan that serves part or all of a building has broad community support and can be implemented,” he said. Flanagan said.
He said the next step will be to conduct a "needs assessment" study to determine what uses residents of the 125,000-square-foot building would like to see.
A 2013 needs study posted on the village website found that residents would like opportunities and space to participate in special events and athletic facilities.
Whatever plan emerges, “it needs to be supported by some data about what the community needs and what the community will support,” Flanagan said.
In 2011, Garden City voters rejected a bond referendum to borrow $3.7 million to demolish the school.
“The vote gives me so much hope and gives us momentum to move forward with this project,” Tara Kuby, conservation director at Preservation Long Island, a cold-country-based nonprofit that supports historical preservation. .
In his October letter to village leaders, Cuby wrote that "the restored St. Paul's Cathedral will become the center of Garden City's social life." »
Let's consider three scenarios
According to the village website, st. The floor was built between 1879 and 1883 and was commissioned by Cornelia Stewart, widow of Alexander Turney Stewart. Stewart is a business tycoon who founded Garden City. The school closed in 1991, and in 1993 the village purchased the property, including fields and small buildings, for $7.25 million. For thirty years the village authorities have been trying to formulate a development plan.
Manhattan-based Vakota Architecture PLC and Westerman Construction in a September report presented a preliminary assessment of the village under three scenarios: demolition; restoration and reconstruction of buildings; and “façadism,” which preserves the façade of a building but demolishes much of it so that a new building can be built behind it.
The company estimates that removing and restoring the grass and trees on the site will cost between $12.8 million and $17.6 million.
Renovating the building without creating usable space would cost about $39.6 million. Improving the interior into usable space would cost about $300 per square foot, or another $30 million.
The theater addition is estimated to cost $5 million and the indoor pool will cost $7 million. Preserving the facade and building a new building behind it would cost between $87.5 million and $157.5 million.
Opponents argue that the village's limited resources could be put to better use.
“My opinion is to demolish the building, preserve the historic elements and maybe use the clock tower as part of the park,” said business consultant Stephen Gorray, 75, a retired Garden City resident.
Save the “architectural germs”.
Jim Apostolides, 71, a Garden City resident and mergers and acquisitions banker, said the idea of spending millions of dollars to create a public space with no specific use is "absurd."
“The villages have to finance all this through debt, and it's expensive and there's a lot of debt,” Apostolides said.
According to the village website, the project could raise property taxes for residents by 9.9 to 19.97 percent, depending on what is built and whether the debt will last 15 or 30 years.
“I grew up here and I've seen this village grow and prosper, but we know there isn't enough space here not only for children, but also for seniors,” said Danette Ceriano, marketing specialist and area member St. Louis. Paul's Alliance, a community group. “Many towns around us have community centers and it would be almost unusual for our town not to have one. »
Ceriano said public uses could include theaters, indoor pools, arts institutions, senior centers or STEM education programs.
“In the United States it is considered an architectural jewel,” said Kate Schmidt, chief investment officer and member of the Alliance. The phased approach, which uses about a quarter of the building's interior space and leaves open the possibility of creating additional usable space, "will allow future generations to make more decisions," he said.
Possible development scenario for St. Mary's School Pavel
- Demolish the building and preserve the architectural details: $17.6 million.
- Demolish the building leaving no architectural details: $12.8 million.
- Preserve and build 33,000 square feet of usable interior space: $49.5 million.
- Preserve usable interior space without building: $39.6 million.
- Preservation of the building's facade alone: $46.4 million.
- Preserve the building's facade so a new building can be built behind it: $37.5 million.
Source: Vakota Architecture PLC and Westerman Construction.
