Troy, N.Y. - The School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will develop the first comprehensive assessment of 18 buildings that make up the historic core of the Troy campus. The project is being funded with a $150,000 Campus Heritage Initiative grant from the Getty Grant Program.

Faculty and graduate students in the school's Master of Science in Building Conservation Program will conduct the assessment during a two-year period that will begin this fall. Included will be histories, documentation of existing conditions, problems of repair, and recommendations and guidelines.

Rensselaer was one of 14 campuses around the country this year to receive a grant from the Getty as part of its Campus Heritage Initiative.

The comprehensive assessment will result in a report, published by Rensselaer and distributed to faculty and staff. It will be used to formulate guidelines and recommendations for future use, care, conservation, and preservation of the buildings.

"We want to investigate and preserve the historic buildings that make up the heart of what is the oldest technological university in the United States," says Fred Cawley, director of the building conservation program, who secured the grant. "Our goal will be to not only have this report used by the Rensselaer community, but have the manual become a template for the sound stewardship on other early 20th-century campuses throughout the nation."

Situated on 35 acres, the brick, Georgian Revival-style buildings were built from 1866 through 1935. The school will also assess two other structures. One is the Approach, the historic staircase completed in 1907 on 8th Street that links the campus physically and symbolically with Troy's downtown. The other is the Tillinghast Gate, the wrought-iron and brick entrance to the campus erected in 1914 on Sage Avenue.

"Failing to understand and appreciate the buildings that gave Rensselaer its formative culture is equal to failing to recognize and build on the ambitions that created this remarkable institution," says Alan Balfour, dean of the School of Architecture. "This study is as important to an understanding of our future as it is of our past."

About the Getty Grant Program
The Getty Grant Program is part of the J. Paul Getty Trust, an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Since its inception in 1984, the Grant Program has supported more than 3,000 projects in more than 150 countries. The Getty Trust also includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute.

Contact: Jodi Ackerman
Phone: (518) 276-6531
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