Media Alliance solicits input for science center in North Central Troy

Dozens of people met this Tuesday at the Sanctuary for Independent Media to offer ideas for a new environmental education center planned for a long-vacant building in Troy’s North Central neighborhood.
Media Alliance, the nonprofit that owns and operates the Sanctuary, recently purchased the two-story building, located at 3319 6th Ave., for $7,500 from the Troy Community Land Bank, according to a deed filed with the county clerk’s office in June. (Media Alliance also owns a vacant lot next to the newly acquired parcel.)
The new center “will seek to empower the public with grassroots science through its community science lab,” according to Media Alliance’s website. The space’s design, amenities, and programming will depend, at least in part, upon the sort of public input that Tuesday’s workshop allowed organizers to collect.
After discussing certain focus areas in small groups, participants floated an array of preliminary ideas for the space, including a map of the city’s natural spaces, a landlord evaluation database, an educational display on lead pipes, a multipurpose kitchen, and a “community press room.”

The workshop was facilitated by Cameron Toler of Curtis + Ginsberg Architects LLP. Several local leaders participated, including city councilman T.J. Kennedy and the Sage Colleges president Christopher Ames.
Media Alliance owns volunteer-powered gardens in the vicinity of the new project. It also operates a low-power radio station, WOOC 105.3 FM, at the Sanctuary. (The Alt appears in a weekly segment on the station’s local public affairs show, the Hudson Mohawk Magazine.)
Design prototypes of the center will be unveiled at the Sanctuary next Friday, Aug. 10 at 1 P.M.