Arbor Hill is a low-income neighborhood vital to the historic fabric of Albany, New York.  Despite a budding regional tech economy and important cultural resources including the 1797 Ten Broeck Mansion and Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence, a nationally recognized Underground Railroad site, Arbor Hill has not experienced the same level of investment as other city neighborhoods.  Median household income is nearly 50% less and vacancy rates are double the City of Albany overall.

Eight years ago, resident, business and civic stakeholders in Arbor Hill developed a revitalization strategy called the "Arbor Hill Neighborhood Plan.” A top priority of that plan is the adaptive reuse of St. Joseph’s Academy, a long vacant, blighted school building located on North Swan Street, once the neighborhood’s mixed-use epicenter.

Albany Barn, the Albany Housing Authority and the City of Albany have partnered to redevelop the St. Joseph's Academy building into 22 low-cost live/work residences, and 12,000+ square feet of multi-tenant creative arts incubator, enterprise and program space including work and rehearsal suites, a dance studio, and digital media lab. The project is called “The Barn/Academy Lofts,” a name that originates from the age-old practice of barn raising, when a community united to build a barn - crucial to a family’s livelihood - for one of its households. In turn, that household would contribute to the overall vitality of the community.

Informed by the success of similar transformative projects in other American cities like Providence, RI, San Francisco, CA and Lynchburg, VA, The Barn/Academy Lofts simultaneously addresses the four focus areas of the Arbor Hill Neighborhood Plan’s revitalization strategy: 1) homeownership and rental housing; 2) arts, culture, and heritage; 3) business and job development; and, 4) quality of life. Artists will work affordably in the renewed St. Joseph’s Academy, anchoring North Swan Street with a stable, built-in creative economy that attracts other types of commerce, especially basic services absent today. Broad arts-based programming at The Barn will lift the creative and professional aspirations of neighborhood residents, especially youth, by establishing direct connections with artists, educators and entrepreneurs working in St. Joseph's, reestablishing important ties with Arbor Hill’s past, and engaging the whole community in shaping its future.

Through the efforts and contributions of Albany Barn, the Albany Housing Authority, The City of Albany and Mayor Gerald Jennings, Norstar, Capitalize Albany Corporation, Empire State Development, Dave Sadowsky, Architect, P.C., TAP Inc., Plumb Excel Group, and Artspace, significant funding for the project has already been secured and we anticipate breaking ground on renovations in 2012, with construction taking 18 - 24 months. 

Albany Barn currently operates a storefront community art space located one block from St. Joseph's called Stage 1.

AVAILABLE NOW AT STAGE 1:  Affordable studio, programming (dance, visual arts, more), exhibition, and meeting space.