ALBANY

The College of Saint Rose will open its new $14 million Massry Center for the Arts on Friday, Sept. 26, with a weekend devoted to concerts and tours of the facility at 1002 Madison Ave.

“It’s always been a long standing dream to have our own state of the art venue,” said Saint Rose President R. Mark Sullivan.

Until three years ago, however, a new center would have remained just a dream. The Massry family’s $2 million gift in December 2005 changed all that. It was the largest single gift ever given to the college, Sullivan said. Morris Massry built a fortune in the retail clothing business before moving into real estate investment management in the Capital District. He and his brother Norman, who serves on the college’s board of trustees, have run Massry Realty Partners for more than 40 years. In 2004, Morris received an honorary degree from the college and, coincidentally, his granddaughter received her MBA, also from the college.

“He wanted to do something for the college,” Sullivan said.

The trustees wanted to build a premier facility that would be an academic building for the college’s expanding music program as well as an art gallery. About 180 students or 15 percent of the 5,000 student population pursue degrees in music education, music industry and performance. Another 15 percent are involved in art studies.

“We didn’t want to compete with other venues,” Sullivan said. “We desperately needed a showplace for our own students. They had been giving public concerts around town.”

With the Massry gift in hand, the college began an active fundraising campaign that has to date raised $8 million toward the actual construction. The remaining $6 million will go toward operating costs, Sullivan said. Bernard Picotte, who also served on the board of trustees, gave $1 million in the name of his family.

Interestingly, Picotte is also in real estate investment management. However, the family has long ties to the college. His wife, now deceased, was a graduate; his son was a trustee during the 1980s and his daughter now serves on the board. For their gift, the college named the 400-seat recital hall after them.

Multi-faceted venue

Saratoga Associates, which had been the architects for another college structure, designed the 46,000-square-foot facility, which includes classrooms, practice rooms, rehearsal rooms, the Picotte Recital Hall and the art gallery. Sano-Rubin Construction Co., Inc. of Albany built it and completed the project this summer.

The result is quite impressive, Sullivan said. The trustees wanted the building to blend in with the other buildings on campus, so brick and classic Victorian lines are ample. They wanted high exposure to natural light so there’s much glass and connecting walkways and plazas to the rest of the campus.

The center is also a green building in that geothermal heating and cooling systems are in place, which makes it 32 percent more efficient than standard systems and should pay for itself in three years. For its energy efficiency, the center got the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold Award.

Sullivan said he was especially pleased with the very spacious art gallery, the recital hall’s excellent acoustics and that the third floor’s rehearsal rooms have the same acoustics. To inaugurate the art gallery, the college asked acclaimed artist Judy Pfaff to install samples of her art, which will run until Nov. 9.

The Albany Symphony Orchestra under conductor David Alan Miller will inaugurate the Picotte Recital Hall at a private college gala. Miller said he had visited the hall and thought it intimate and sumptuous and that his sound engineer had declared the acoustics amazing.

Concert tickets will be low cost, Sullivan said, because he wants to draw the local Albany crowds. Initial concerts will feature student groups from area colleges and some professional groups. Perhaps in the future, Sullivan said, he might persuade one of the international stars who performs, say at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, to venture onto the campus to give a concert.