SCHENECTADY — The Museum of Innovation and Science (miSci) will remain at its current Schenectady location for at least five more years after the museum reached a deal with county and state officials on Tuesday.
During a meeting Tuesday afternoon at the Schenectady County office building, Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, D-Rotterdam, and Schenectady County Legislature Chair Gary Hughes reached an agreement with museum officials to keep miSci at its current home on Nott Terrace, which has housed the museum since 1969.
“The museum has agreed to stay within the city of Schenectady,” Santabarbara said on Tuesday evening. “This is a very significant development. The museum holds great significance to the community and has a lot of support from the community. It’s been a source of education and cultural enrichment and its presence is very important to the identity of our city.”
Under the terms of the deal, Schenectady County will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a comprehensive study of the building in order to determine the condition of the museum.
Following heavy rainfall in the city last July, the museum experienced hydrostatic pressure in its basement — imperiling its archives — leading miSci to seek a new home for the archives and potentially for the museum itself.
The study will determine potential infrastructure upgrades needed at the site, with the county and state agreeing to explore further funding once the scope of the work is determined.
“The county has agreed to fund a building condition report by an independent engineering firm to determine how to extend the life of the current museum building for another 50 years while safeguarding its collection,” Hughes declared in a statement Tuesday. “We also secured the museum’s promise to sign a community benefits agreement that will guarantee that the museum will stay in Schenectady.”
Santabarbara said the county would seek to issue the RFP imminently in order to identify needed infrastructure work.
Santabarbara said the county and state will work with the museum to fund a possible addition to the current site that would house miSci’s trove of archives, which are imperiled by potential flooding in their current location in the museum’s basement.
“Down the road, we discussed the possibility of building an addition versus a standalone building on the site, expanding the museum itself, with the required space to move the artifacts and archives from the basement,” Santabarbara said. “We all agreed it shouldn’t be on the lower level, because that’s typically where problems occur if there’s going to be flooding.”
In a prior meeting with the county and state officials, miSci Board Chair Neil Golub requested that the museum receive $1 million to stabilize its finances for the rest of 2024 while it explored its next steps. The museum will now move forward in conjunction with the county and state to remain at its longtime home.
“I am delighted that Assemblyman Santabarbara and County Chairman Gary Hughes brought a Schenectady group together to help solve miSci's long-standing support needs,” Golub noted in Tuesday's statement. “Being in a suitable facility is critical to the museum’s long-term survival and service to the community, particularly our children. Much thanks to our legislators for standing up and doing the right thing.”
In a letter to the museum on March 6, Hughes and Santabarbara noted that, with an estimated cost of $20-40 million to relocate the museum, they had determined it would be “fiscally irresponsible” for miSci to move from its current home.
The letter explained that the county was willing to fund the building condition survey as the first step in a deal to keep the museum in Schenectady, with Hughes and Santabarbara seeking a commitment of at least five years from miSci.
“It came up in the meeting today and everyone was more than willing to agree to that,” Santabarbara said of the five-year agreement. “The five years satisfies what the county is looking for. It’s a good period of time, but I would expect that the museum will stay much, much longer than that.”