How fitting that the new Hudson River research center to be built in Troy is bordered on one side by the Bruno Machine Works. For without the Senate majority leader of the same name, it is hard to conceive of this facility coming here. Which is not to say it’s some pork-barrel boondoggle. Far from it. This is a wonderful project that will make possible important research, and at the same time provide myriad economic, environmental and recreational (bike and walking paths and gardens) to Troy and the greater Capital Region.

When Gov. Pataki in 2000 first proposed a major research institute on the Hudson River, modeled after the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, we applauded. We also expressed hope that it would be located here — as long as it wasn’t in the middle of some greenfield.

Ultimately Pataki chose to put the institute at an old factory complex in Beacon, a Hudson River city that is experiencing a renaissance. The state committed about $40 million for its construction and operation, and it is set to be fully operational in October 2010. Already it has drawn private funding and partners, including IBM, which has worked with it to develop a cutting-edge system of high-tech sensors, robots and computers that will provide minute-by-minute information about river chemistry, conditions and fish populations.

The center in Troy will be the northern anchor of the Beacon Institute. The state will provide $10 million for construction, and the institute has pledged to come up with the rest from other sources.

Institute Director John Cronin says that Troy — the headwaters of the estuary system that extends to the ocean, and where the upper and lower Hudson come together — is a natural, strategic location for a satellite. Two main attractions were the innovation going on in Tech Valley and the presence of RPI, which will collaborate with the institute as IBM has.

Cronin also says that he, and Bruno, are eager to show how environmental technology can spur economic development — in this case by transforming an old junkyard on Troy’s waterfront into a world-class research center that will bring jobs, researchers (and research money), students and visitors. It’s the right project in the right place.