Collaborators on Innovative Beacon Waterfront Project Announce Public Forum

Scenic Hudson and its world-class "green" design team seek citizen input

(BEACON) - In an upcoming public forum, Scenic Hudson and partner Foss Group Beacon will outline plans for transforming a former industrial section of Beacon's waterfront into a pioneering "green" redevelopment project. Citizens who attend will be able to offer feedback on how the project can maximize community-based goals.

The public meeting will be held Thursday, Aug. 14, from 7-9 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Beacon High School, 101 Matteawan Road. Following brief presentations by the project sponsors, residents will participate in working groups to develop suggestions on how the Beacon Landing project, to be called Long Dock Beacon, can best serve community needs and build connections with other downtown destinations and a reviving Main Street business district. Strategies for enhancing community access to the Hudson River also will be examined.

Model, cutting-edge initiative
Scenic Hudson has spent more than a decade working to protect Beacon's natural and historic resources. The group began in 1997 to purchase parcels that now comprise its 23-acre Beacon Landing property along the city's waterfront. With significant input from government and business leaders as well as residents, the Poughkeepsie-based environmental, land preservation and community planning group decided to create a smart growth development it hopes will become a model for the Hudson Valley.

Working with Foss Group Beacon of Delmar, N.Y. and Prague, Czech Republic, and a design team spearheaded by Patkau Architects of Vancouver and Gruzen Samton of New York City, Scenic Hudson will create a vibrant urban waterfront development. Plans call for the 23-acre Beacon Landing to feature a 14-acre public park; a cutting-edge, sustainably designed hotel; a conference center; restaurants; offices; a community boat-building center; and an environmentally friendly harbor.

A key component of the project is a public park with waterside trails in addition to docks and a fishing pier. The project is intended to complement a revitalized Main Street as well as Dia:Beacon and the recently announced Rivers and Estuaries Center, which is expected to be partly sited on Beacon Landing.

"Scenic Hudson is known for opposing bad development and encouraging smart growth, but this effort is a major step forward. We and our team will demonstrate that developers can create environmentally and economically viable projects that enhance community quality of life and prosperity," said Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson.

Ned Foss, lead partner and manager of Foss Group Beacon, said "There's been a dismissing of the concept of sustainable development as "unrealistic," and we don't accept that premise. This project will prove that economic development and environmentalism need not be mutually exclusive."

The public process has been, and will continue to be, vital in shaping plans for Beacon Landing, according to City of Beacon Mayor Clara Lou Gould. She stated, "I believe the success of Beacon's revitalization has been largely due to our including the community in any planning process. Scenic Hudson has always been a very willing partner in that respect, and we thank them for making public input a vital part of their process."

Unique real estate collaborative
After reviewing a dozen proposals from developers, Scenic Hudson recently signed a formal agreement with the Foss Group Beacon to develop the site. Foss Group Beacon has deep roots in the Hudson Valley and has completed projects around the world. The firm specializes in creative reuse of industrial properties, provides a heightened focus on environmental and historic resources, and merges varied professional and technical practices in revitalizing communities. An example of a current project is a redevelopment of an 8.5-acre former manufacturing site in Prague. Foss Group Beacon, working with renowned architects Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel, is creating a high-tech complex with a mix of office, retail and residential uses. Similar to the Beacon Landing project, it will feature a hotel and conference center as well as recreational and arts offerings.

In seeking designers for Long Dock Beacon, Scenic Hudson and Foss Group Beacon interviewed 19 world-class candidates noted for sustainability expertise. They eventually selected Patkau Architects and Gruzen Samton, a team that also will employ the services of various engineering and landscape architecture firms committed to green design. Their approach to the design of buildings in natural settings is multidimensional. Not only are their buildings subtly and/or overtly "green," utilizing sophisticated passive environmental strategies and active environmental technologies, their buildings also respond to the natural context aesthetically. Gruzen Samton will be responsible for the management of the process, production and construction administration. The firm brings to the team a proven record of quality and comprehensive experience with technical development and construction.

"Long Dock Beacon not only has the potential to be the most ecologically sensitive and progressive hotel in the United States, it also has the potential to be a sublime integration of building and landscape, an environment where ecological values are complemented by aesthetic values. This is the Long Dock Beacon we propose," said John Patkau, principal of Patkau Architects.

Project timeline
The planning process for the Beacon Landing project is expected to last three months. Environmental reviews and permitting applications should be completed in 2005. The hotel is expected to open in 2007.

The Thursday, Aug. 14, public forum builds upon a series of community workshops Scenic Hudson held after acquiring the Beacon Landing site. More than 200 citizens, public officials and business leaders participated in the events. According to Scenic Hudson the sessions provided a clear vision of Beacon's hopes for its waterfront.

Next steps
Additional forums will occur in September, when alternative approaches developed by the design team will be presented, and later in the fall when the selected alternative is presented to the City of Beacon. The project will then enter the environmental review and permitting phase, which has frequent opportunities for public comment.

More about the collaborators
Founded in 1963, Scenic Hudson is a nonprofit environmental organization and separately incorporated land trust that works from Manhattan to the foothills of the Adirondacks. Headquartered in downtown Poughkeepsie, the group works with citizens, government and business to preserve landscapes and create public parks, reclaim urban waterfronts and foster community planning, improve air and water quality, and promote environmental awareness and access to the Hudson River. www.scenichudson.org.

Foss Group Beacon is a team of investors and developers with more than 75 years of experience in development, environmental planning and architectural design. Assembled by Ned Foss, lead partner and manager, the group will lead efforts to realize and manage Long Dock Beacon. Ned Foss has worked internationally in real estate development and philanthropy. Matthew Rudikoff, development partner, offers real estate development and environmental consulting services to nonprofits, government agencies and corporate clients. Lawrence Linder, partner in charge of architecture, has been a design principal in a number of architectural firms.