Hudson Heritage
From Abandoned Healthcare Facility to Live/Work/Play Community
The former Hudson River Psychiatric Center sat vacant along Route 9 in Poughkeepsie, NY, just north of Marist College for many years. The 300-acre site includes more than 75 buildings on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places as well as a Frederick Law Olmstead designed central green. Developers sought to reimagine the site while preserving its historic character.
LaBella prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), schematic site design development, and construction documents for the redevelopment of the former Hudson River Psychiatric Center. Plans include 750 residential units, 350,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, and a hotel. Portions of the development qualified for brownfield tax credits.
LaBella worked closely with the developer to design a project that respects the historic landscape and re-uses buildings where it is feasible to do so while respecting environmental limitations. The EIS scope included traffic and visual impact studies, cultural resource surveys including Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation of the historic buildings, and extensive utility and stormwater analyses.
In support of the redevelopment, LaBella prepared a property boundary survey, detailed topographic and utility survey, subdivision mapping, and NYSDOT easement mapping. The project included over 6,400 linear feet of new town roadways along with more than 10,000 linear feet of private roadways.
Post appraisal surveying included survey construction support for roadways and utilities and as-built surveys to secure Certification of Occupancy.
To date, the Hudson Heritage site is enlivened with a grocery store, restaurants, and stores—all which are often bustling with local college students. Improvements will continue, including residences, a hotel, a great lawn, and streetscapes that give the site a community-like feel.
