Guild gets funding for Fulton senior center renovation project

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 13 / December 22 - 28, 2006

A rendering of the new entrance area for the Fulton Center as it will look after the renovation.

By Albert Amateau

The Hudson Guild has received commitments totaling $350,000 from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Congressmember Jerrold Nadler to renovate the Guild’s Fulton Center.

The money — $200,000 from Stringer and $150,000 from Nadler — together with $200,000 committed in the spring of last year by former Borough President C. Virginia Fields, will go toward the renovation of the center at 119 Ninth Ave. in the Robert Fulton Houses.

Now in the planning stage, the renovation is slated to begin in the middle of 2008.

“We intend to renovate the Fulton Center inside and out, and high on our list of priorities is creating a prominent entrance that will welcome community members to Hudson Guild,” said Brian Saber, Guild executive vice president.

“Our goal is to create a modern, bright and beautiful community space at the Fulton Center, similar to what we’ve done at the Elliott Center that’s had such a positive effect on Hudson Guild’s programming,” Saber said.

In May 2005 the Guild opened the John Lovejoy Elliott Center, the two-story, 20,000-square-foot center at 441 W. 26th St. in the Elliott Chelsea Houses, after a two-year, $10 million renovation.

The Fulton Center, nine blocks south on the first floor of a Fulton Houses building, is home to the Guild’s Adult Services program, which opened in 1965 to serve seniors. The center now includes an art gallery and a computer lab. It currently serves more than 500 seniors.

Renovations will include making the center completely handicapped accessible, installing new lighting and new furniture and fixtures.

The Guild, a settlement house founded in 1895 in Chelsea, serves about 11,000 people a year with programs including day care, hot meals for seniors, low-cost professional mental health counseling, community arts and recreation for teens.