Synthesis Designs Intermodal Center

City lawmakers gave high marks Monday to a site plan and renderings of the $33 million intermodal transit center envisioned for the corner of State Street and Erie Boulevard.

The Western Gateway Transportation Center would consist of a new rail and bus depot, built in historic style; a museum of transportation; and an office building with street-level retail space. (Synthesis designed the architectural renderings for the building complex.)

The intermodal station was one of the key elements of the ambitious Schenectady 2000 vision of downtown redevelopment unveiled by community leaders in 1998. Some elements of that plan, such as a convention center and luxury hotel, are no longer under active consideration. But Mitchell said the intermodal proposal is a likely winner.

“I really believe this can happen,” he said. “We can make this happen. We’ve got a lot of people very excited about this.”

The plan is to replace the squat, 27-year old Amtrak station on Erie Boulevard with a new station serving local and interstate bus lines and passenger rail, including high-speed rail service to New York City which is scheduled to begin after the state funds a second rail line between Rensselaer and Schenectady next year.

A tall, $1 million brick clock tower would rise on the northwest corner of the building.

An office building — shown four stories tall, with 80,000 square feet of space, in renderings Monday — would fill what is now the Amtrak parking lot. The building would have 40,000 square feet of retail space along its sidewalks. The Wall Street building on the site would be removed.

The intermodal center complex is “strongly supported and integrated” into the downtown master plan now being finalized by Hunter-Sasaki-Synthesis, Mitchell said.

“This didn't go off on its own,” he said. “[The consultants] are very excited. They think it’s probably the strongest initiative we could have downtown.”

Councilman David L. Bouck called the project “exactly what the council should be working with the [Jurczynski] administration toward.”

Councilman Brian U. Stratton said the new vision for the center is a marked improvement over the “mundane, modern, contemporary structures” first presented to the council nine months ago.

Mitchell said Synthesis Architects of Jay Street sought a pleasing appearance in its design. “What we've tried to do is create buildings and architecture with the mercantile style that is downtown now,” he said.

A leader of the Stockade neighborhood across Erie Boulevard agreed. “I think this is a wonderful improvement over what we saw nine months ago,” said Robert Hayner, president of the Stockade Association. “Obviously Milt Mitchell and the architects were listening to the public.”

This project is an award recipient from the American Institute of Architects/Eastern New York.