When we last heard from the shining school on the hill overlooking Troy, the fuddy-duddies on the zoning board refused to bless the new plans to build a 41-44 foot tall mansion for the President of the university. The rules for that piece of land say that all homes should not be more than 25 feet high, a restriction that still permits almost every McMansion I’ve ever seen. A few students squalked and I demonstrated my lack of vision too.
It turns out there’s a wrinkle and a loophole. The old Presidential manse with 6 or 7 bedrooms sits next to the new site. Originally, Rensselaer was going to preserve the old building as a guest house. But the old site doesn’t have the zoning restrictions. So the clever visionaries at RPI looked at the options:
- Keep the President in a nice, old mansion and use the money for something useful.
- Build a new mansion that’s under 25 feet high and use the old mansion for a guest house.
- Spend even more to tear down the old mansion first and then put up a 41-44 foot monstrosity.
RPInsider and Chris Churchill at the Times Union tell us that RPI chose door number three, the most expensive option that leaves them with the least amount of property for non-Presidents. Whoo hoo.
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