Here is some of the imagery of the transformation of the Green Street-Belmont Avenue section of Northampton. Smith College is reordering the area to make way for Ford Hall, a new Science and Engineering Center for women. Below are YouTube videos from Jeff Massimino, an abutting neighbor who is documenting the transition of the neighborhood. Today’s videos are of the removal of a commercial building that was located on the corner of Green Street and Belmont Avenue. (See Galleries to the lower left for pictures of the project.)
The November 29 edition of the Smith College Sophian has a story regarding Green Street and Smith College by Elizabeth Tuttle. Here is an excerpt:
John Sielski and Jim Dozmati, owners of the Caf , have just received an extension on their lease, allowing them to remain in business until December 2012. For the past several years, these Northampton residents and others have been grappling to make sense of and adapt to the changes brought about by Smith’s construction of new engineering and molecular science buildings.
The project, brought about by the Board of Trustees’ 1999 vote to establish an engineering major at Smith, requires demolishing four college-owned apartment buildings, consisting of 26 units, as well as two buildings that have been in college use. Residents from 16, 20 and 22 Belmont Avenue and 22 Arnold Avenue have been forced relocate to other low-income housing in the area.
Smith also plans to demolish several buildings on Green Street that are currently in college use, such as Hampshire House, which served the needs of commuter services and Smith’s printing operation. As such, Green Street Caf is one of the only remaining retail businesses on the street.
You can read the rest of the article here.
