Records Building – Be Heard at the Virtual Public Meeting on April 16th

Here is your chance to discuss the fate of the 1904 Records Building in Hoboken Yards. The public meeting of March 17th was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. On 4/10, the City announced a virtual meeting:

"We are co-hosting a virtual public meeting with New Jersey Transit on the future of the New Jersey Transit Records Building on April 16 from 5:00 – 6:30 pm via the WebEx online platform." For more information on the Records Building, including instructions on how to join the virtual meeting on April 16, please visit: https://www.hobokennj.gov/resources/lackawanna-records-building.

Please plan to take part. The Task Force recommends action Alternative 4: Adaptive Reuse. A six-page illustrated report from Don Friedman, P.E., of Old Structures Engineering has been shared with NJ Transit, the appropriate Federal agencies, the State Historic Preservation Office and the City of Hoboken. It compares the condition of the Records Building to the that of three other projects on which that firm worked -- projects that resulted in stabilization of a building thought to be beyond redemption.

Excerpts: 

“Similar Projects:

The issues of stabilization and reuse of damaged and unused historic buildings is a com- mon one. Many buildings are effectively or literally abandoned because there is no use for them at a given time; once they are no longer maintained and heated, physical dete- rioration begins. Our structural engineering firm has worked on numerous projects of this type. Three projects that can serve as examples are the Winslow Lab at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, the former 17th Precinct Police Station in Brooklyn, and the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava in Manhattan. “

"The Records Building meets the only physical requirement for repair and eventual reuse:  it is currently strong enough to support its own weight and the lateral pressure of ordinary winds.  It is feasible to repair whatever damage exists and to then adapt the building for reuse."

For more on this approach, please see:

https://www.rd-taskforce.com/post/support-alternative-4-adaptive-reuse-for-the-records-building

For more information about this historic structure, please read:

https://www.rd-taskforce.com/post/real-and-current-threats-to-the-records-building

For a related news item, please see: http://hmag.com/hoboken-hosting-virtual-public-meeting-new-jersey-transit-records-building-april-16/