GOWANDA — More than one year since ground was broken on the Academy Place project, the former school that houses it has undergone some big changes inside.
Although the August floods set renovations back by about a month, according to officials, the more than $10 million conglomeration of community space, housing and commercial offices spearheaded by the Healthy Community Alliance (HCA) is still expected to see its first use early next year. In the meantime, the place-in-progress was recently used as a learning opportunity for graduate students from the University of Guelph in Ontario.
A group from the university’s Rural Planning and Development program made Gowanda a stop on a tour of regional development, visiting Academy Place as well as the Historic Hollywood Theater. The students are interested not only in the construction aspects of projects such as these, but also the financial, governmental and community ramifications. According to Professor Wayne Caldwell, crossing the border into the U.S. provides a nearby opportunity to explore development projects under different circumstances.
“There’s so much that can be learned by seeing what other people are doing and how they dthings,” he said. “There’s simply the logistics of being close to Guelph but, of course, coming across the border you’re in a different political system, a different set of laws and regulations. People tend to approach things a little bit differently.”
The classrooms of Academy Place have undergone significant change within the past year. Rooms on the upper two floors of the three-story building have mostly retained their sizes — about 705 square feet on average — but the once open teaching space has been converted into separate areas already fitted with new heating, ventilation and energy-efficient appliances.
In total, 32 senior housing apartments will be available. One-bedroom units will cost $295 per month while two-bedroom units will cost $325 per month, base price. Twenty-one of the apartments will be set on a sliding scale for lower incomes and five will provide special services to allow their occupants to live independently for as long as possible.
While plans for the apartments have gone smoothly, some compromises have had to be made for the intended uses of the first floor. TLC Health Network backed out of a collaboration to provide adult daycare services and a replacement partner has not yet been found. Erie County Community Action is slated to begin a Head Start program, however, with hopes of expanding services to a wider age range of children. The school building’s auditorium, which was originally going to be kept as a community venue, will have to be at least partially cleared to make way for an elevator. The Healthy Community Alliance is currently considering placing five medium-income level apartments in that space as well.
Additional plans for the first floor continue, however, including leaseable commercial space, a community gym area and congregate dining. A new idea is a “country store” that will be run by Gowanda Central School students.
Sharon Mathe, executive director of the HCA, told the graduate students of the more than decade-long process of getting the Academy Place project off the ground, an endeavor that required an incredible amount of fundraising and outside help — even to just figure out how to define what Academy Place would be.
“A mixed development project of this magnitude has not been done in New York state before, so we stumped all the pros,” Mathe said. “They weren’t sure how to put elder housing together with commercial space... so the attorneys from the state and the feds finally came up with the solution that we had to condo-ize.”
After years of negotiation and fundraising, Academy Place began construction Oct. 1, 2008. The housing is currently 99 percent owned by Key Community Foundation, who will maintain majority share for the next 15 years before turning it over to Academy Place Apartment, LP. The application period for housing has already begun, with the apartments slated to open in January or February of next year.
George Stark, construction representative for the HCA, took the group on a tour of all the ongoing renovations and also spoke of the history of the building, from the 1840s to today. Each month, photos and footage of the building are taken to be compiled into a record by the village historian. Some of the essence of the former school will remain in daily sights in Academy Place, including the glass-paneled archways in the halls and a stone from a former incarnation of the school that was recovered from Cattaraugus Creek that will be featured in a garden area.
Stark, who lived close to the former school for much of his life and saw his children attend classes there, takes pleasure in simultaneously renewing and preserving history of the site.
“I was a state building inspector, so I’ve watched everything: jails, nursing homes, office buildings,” he said. “This is just plain fun.”
Mathe noted that the partnerships forged to create Academy Place have also included the community and many of its members who wanted to see new life in the building and not an entirely new structure. While some gave financially to get Academy Place started, Mathe said more will be able to become a part of the center once it is finished.
“This collaboration opens to others,” Mathe said. “The church across the street wants to collaborate with us when we’re done; help them become disability-accessible in return for providing services. So it doesn’t end when this building is done.”
The graduate students thanked the HCA representatives for their time with a gift of wine. According to Prof. Caldwell, the group would visit sites in Hamburg and Angola before returning to Canada. Leaving to break for lunch, he turned and took one final distance shot of the site.
“I think communities across the continent struggle because — I’m sure it’s the same here as it is at home — change in demographics, fewer kids, changing approaches to education leaves all kinds of wonderful institutional buildings like this,” Caldwell said. “... and so often there’s the temptation to do what I think is the wrong thing, which is to demolish it, or it sits idle for decades.”
“We don’t build schools today like we used to build them,” he added. “That was built to last generations.”
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