A History of Two Historic Buildings

AIHA was housed in two unconnected historic buildings both of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated local historical landmarks. 

The museum building, designed by the local architectural firm of Fuller and Pitcher, was build in 1907 for the Institute in the "American Renaissance’ style. The three-story, 27,000 sq.ft. structure of yellow-gray bridge features an octagonal entrance hall with graceful, curved mirror-image stairways on both sides of the entrance doors. Galleries are arranged symmetrically along a central axis on the first and second level, while the ground floor houses a combination of galleries, an education space and offices. Originally, second floor galleries were with a skylight/lay light system but today only one still exists. 

The William Gorham Rice mansion was constructed in 1895 from a design by Richard Howland Hunt with the assistance of his father, Richard Morris Hunt. Emulating an Italian palazzo, this handsome, four story, 8,000 sq.ft. Beaux Arts house of yellow roman brick, terracotta and limestone, features a very elaborate, bracketed, terracotta cornice. A terra cotta balustrade surrounding and hiding the low –profile hipped roof, and an identical terra cotta balustrade surrounding the now-missing formal gardens were both removed in 1938 when the residence was converted into an office building. Added to the side of the structure was a large three-story addition of similar size, mass, material and detail that was designed by James Shattuck. The Rice Annex approximately doubled the size of the Rice mansion. The building was purchased by the adjacent Albany Institute in 1966.