The City School District of Albany celebrated the highly anticipated completion of its transformational rebuild and expansion of Albany High School with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and building tours Aug. 26, formally unveiling the Capital Region’s pre-eminent high school facilities following the community’s investment in the future of public education in New York’s capital city.
The project, which began in 2018 and straddled the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, added nearly 200,000 square feet of educational space. The work also completely renovated the previously existing facilities on Albany High’s main campus, originally constructed in the early 1970s.
“This is a proud and historic moment for our school district and our entire community,” said Board of Education President Sridar Chittur, Ph.D.
“The new Albany High School represents the fulfillment of our promise to our community, and a return on its investment in the future of our city’s young people. We are grateful for their support as well as their confidence in us. This is a stellar example of the amazing possibilities we can deliver for our city’s future when we all work together toward a common goal.”
The project was completed on schedule and within budget – including the initial $179.9 million proposal voters approved in 2016, and an additional $9 million proposal approved in 2023 following cost escalations related to the pandemic.
The new 561,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art high school serves approximately 2,700 students, about 500 more than it did when voters approved the project in 2016. It combines Albany High’s vast portfolio of academic programs on the main campus for the first time, moving all Career and Technical Education classrooms from the former Abrookin Career and Technical Center two blocks away.
The new CTE spaces now on the main campus – including pathways in Automotive Technology, Barbering, Construction Technology, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, Health Sciences and more – are an exceptional highlight of the new campus and a focal point of the district’s future planning for student success.
The location of all academic programs on the main campus also is an important safety improvement for students, who no longer will need to cross four lanes of traffic on busy Washington Avenue to get to and from Abrookin.
“This is a stunning high school facility,” said Superintendent Joesph Hochreiter. “Not just in appearance and amenities, but also in the possibilities it opens for our students and staff to envision an exciting new future for public education in our city.
“All of Albany High School’s unparalleled opportunities are now accessible to all of our students under one roof. That’s a tremendous advantage as New York reimagines high school pathways and the diverse skills and knowledge students will be required to demonstrate upon graduation beginning in the next few years.”
The Albany High rebuilding project was completed in four phases.
- Phase 1 primarily included a new three-story, 120,000-square-foot academic building that opened in February 2020, just a few weeks before the COVID-19 shutdown.
- Phase 2, completed during the pandemic in late 2020, included a new two-story, 39,000-square-foot fine arts building.
- Phase 3, completed in two stages over three years, included the renovation of the auditorium and the addition of a 241-seat balcony, a spectacular new library/media center, two new cafeterias, and several of the new CTE spaces.
- Phase 4, completed this summer, included a full renovation of the old academic building, new special education classrooms and additional new CTE spaces.
Principal Jodi Commerford, a 1993 Albany High graduate, took administrative leadership of her alma mater in January 2018. She guided the school community of more than 3,000 students and employees through the duration of the sometimes disruptive seven-year evolution of the campus.
“While it wasn’t always easy for us on a day-to-day basis, there is an enormous feeling of pride in the incredible transformation that Albany High has undergone,” Commerford said. “We see it in the increase of students in our CTE courses, as an example, and in the significant increase in the numbers of parents and guardians who attend school events and activities.
“This is truly the start of a new era for public education in the City of Albany, and we are grateful to everyone who supported this project and persisted through it – most especially our students and their families, and our dedicated faculty and staff.”