First published: May 30, 2007

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THE ISSUE: A vision for Wellington Row calls for saving its historic buildings and incorporating them into a revival of State Street. THE STAKES: Albany can preserve its past while moving into the future.

It's been years since Albany's once grand but long neglected Wellington Row has been such a source of hope and promise. It's fair to say that the truly bad old days ended last November, when Sebba Rockaway Ltd. of London sold the abandoned Wellington Hotel - at a loss, yet - and four adjacent buildings on State Street to some local developers who seem much more appreciative of how those historic structures and others like them have shaped contemporary Albany.

Six months later, Columbia Development Cos. still plans to build a 14-story office tower with street-level shops and condominiums.

It has suggested possibly building that project in a way that would preserve the exterior facades of the Wellington Hotel and two other buildings that Sebba Rockaway had intended to tear down when it bought them 20 years ago.

Some architects and preservationists, though, are talking even more ambitiously. They're determined to see as much of these structures saved as possible.

To think that the era of constructing new buildings around, and especially above, old ones could potentially give way to a bolder reuse of Wellington Row. It's encouraging to hear city officials such as Michael Yevoli, Alba ny's commissioner of development and planning, talk at once of preservation and reuse.

And it's reassuring to hear Albany architect William Brandow say of Wellington Row, "There's not a city in the world that wouldn't love to have those two buildings (138 State and 140 State) next to each other, whether it be Paris or New York City." This is not a frivolous quest.

A grant for $2.5 million, more than twice as much as Columbia Development paid for the buildings, from the state to aid the stabilization of Wellington Row has been invaluable in that regard.

No one has to look very far to see the successful reuse of structures so valuable to the city's architectural heritage. Take the buildings right across State Street, including the former home of Martin VanBuren, that have been renovated for use as apartments. Or those in the nearby neighborhoods that contribute so strongly to the city's sense of its history and its feeling of community.

As for Wellington Row, on State Street and around the corner on Howard Street, all that promise brings no guarantees, of course. The costs are still considerable. But the realization that calculated neglect, deterioration with an eye on demolition, is part of Albany's less storied past makes its future all the brighter.