![]() ![]() I'd love to save the building if there was any way to do it." I'm realistic about the fact that saving that building is extremely expensive and problematic. There are lots of ways you can preserve the place the building occupied. If it isn't able to be maintained as a working building, then I would like at least to be able to save the footprint and have it be even an open pavilion or a sunken garden. "I would like to preserve the building for posterity in some fashion. "The big building is much more problematic, and it's not in its original form anyway because it's been added to," she said. She floated the idea of a small commercial operation in the building, such as an education center, a little cafe, a bed and breakfast component and other thoughts. The nurses' residence at Seaside is the building Curry will fight hardest to save. The state did not find a proper suitor, and Seaside has remained a state park open to the public for recreational activities. The state issued a request for proposals in 2018 seeking a private partner that could restore the facility's buildings to create a luxury hotel and add waterfront enhancements. Years of research and public outreach ensued. Malloy designated Seaside a state park in 2014 after Waterford's Planning & Zoning Commission denied an application from a private developer. She and the Friends of Seaside have a beautification plan for the property.įormer Gov. Her quest began as a way to save her great-grandfather's work, but she's come to understand the concerns of neighbors in Waterford, who comprise the Friends of Seaside group, as well as the intricacies of Connecticut's coastline. It likely won't be called before the end of the legislative session on June 9, and Formica won't push the bill before the session's end. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, requires the state Department of Economic and Community Development "to develop and issue a request for proposals to develop or dispose of the former Seaside Sanatorium facility in the town of Waterford and to preserve the adjacent area for a park with public access." The state has failed to maintain the structures over time, and they continue to deteriorate.Ī bill introduced by state Sen. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., designed the main hospital building on Seaside's property and an employee building. Since then, the state has attempted to attract developers to convert the property's historical buildings into a resort, apartments, condominiums and the like.Ĭass Gilbert, an American architect best known for the Woolworth Building in New York City and the U.S. It's been about three decades since Seaside, a former center for the developmentally disabled, was vacated. Such a tiny percentage of the Connecticut coastline is public." We can work toward creating a botanic garden, a natural habitat for animals, pollinator pathways, walking paths, ways to preserve the coastal habitat. ![]() "Once you understand the development is wrong, then we can talk about having Seaside as a passive park open to everybody. ![]() ![]() If you look at what's going on in the world and understand the importance of coastal property, if you look at inevitable climate change and sea rise, that's the wrong place to develop," she said. "I don't want to see any development on that piece of land. Waterford - Helen Post Curry, the great-granddaughter of the designer of the main hospital building at the former Seaside Regional Center, is continuing a Quixotic effort to keep developers' hands off what is now Seaside State Park.Ĭurry, also the founder of Friends of Seaside State Park, advocates for doubling down on Seaside's designation as a state park by improving it. The former tuberculosis hospital, designed by renowned architect Cass Gilbert, was designated a state park in a surprise announcement by Gov. Buildings of the former Seaside Regional Center in Waterford on March 22, 2018. ![]()
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