Size

Build: 14,400 sq. ft. / 1,338 sq. m.

Year

2019

Status

Completed

Client

Hudson River Housing, Mid-Hudson Heritage Center

Partners

Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, Hudson River Housing, Liscum McCormick Vanhoorhis

Portrait of Chris Kroner
Chris Kroner
Principal
CK Mass Headshot 1

Chris Kroner

Principal — Poughkeepsie

Chris joined MASS to co-found the Hudson Valley Design Lab in Poughkeepsie NY in 2017. As a committed architecture and urban design educator, he moved to the Hudson Valley to convert his teaching into practice as a revolutionary and immersive model of listening and engagement. The design lab has become a thinktank for pioneering community design practice in American "Fringe Cities.” He sees architecture and design as a daily practice of outreach, showcasing adaptive reuse and new buildings both as coalition building methods to boundary span across multiple interests and regenerate city fabric. In addition to directing design projects, he leads all Poughkeepsie based community outreach work, serves as a design consultant to the Poughkeepsie Planning Board, and volunteers on a number of community and regional coalitions.

Prior to working at MASS Design Group's Hudson Valley Office, Chris has a career in award-winning architectural design practice, spending a decade as an associate partner with Dean/Wolf Architects where he conducted a series of award-winning projects in all stages of design and construction. “Restless Response: Emergency Medical Station 50” at Queens Hospital garnered the American Architecture Prize Gold Medal in Institutional Architecture in 2016, and the station was featured in Architectural Record in March 2017. Additionally, “Ephemeral Edge House,” a rural retreat home south of Albany won a Progressive Architecture Award in 2012 and a New York City AIA Honor Award in 2019.

Chris holds his Master of Architecture degree from Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) where he received the Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Prize, and his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia, where he received the Sean Steele-Nicholson Memorial Award. He teaches studios and seminars regularly at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning, as well as in the Pratt Institute’s Graduate Architecture and Urban Design programs, and has held lecture positions at institutions worldwide.

Project Team

Caroline Alsup, Chris Kroner, Justin Brown, Michael Murphy, Ryan Thomas, Vrinda Sharma

Collaborators

Architect of Record: Liscum McCormack VanVoorhis Architectural Design: MASS Design Group
Structural Engineer: William J. Moreau, PE
MEP Engineer: Fellenzer Engineering
Civil Engineer: Jolanda G. Jansen, P.E., J.D.

Trolley Barn Exterior

Between 1874 and 1935, the City of Poughkeepsie’s historic Trolley Barn housed a fleet of first horse-powered and later electric trolley cars that carried residents and shoppers along Main Street to the Hudson River, Vassar College, and nearby Wappingers Falls.

Trolley Barn Elevation

After the city switched to buses, this unique structure became a garage and then an auto parts store before falling into disuse. Today, Poughkeepsie is breathing new life into this historic node, attracting visitors and residents alike back into the Middle Main neighborhood through the arts.

Trolley Barn Exterior

Beginning in the fall of 2017, MASS’s Poughkeepsie, NY office partnered with Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, Hudson River Housing, and architecture firm Liscum McCormick VanVoorhis to reimagine the Trolley Barn as an arts center and event space, dedicated to inclusively catalyzing reinvestment along Main Street.

Trolley Barn Interior

The project team worked closely with members of the community to develop possible programming schema alongside local artists and nonprofits. The Trolley Barn project received an initial grant from NeighborWorks America to renovate the front portion of the building, and later went on to receive funds from the Restore New York Communities Initiative to complete the building’s transformation into a multi-cultural center for arts programming and events. The Trolley Barn opened in 2019.