TROY ARCHITECTURAL PROGRAM GETS A NEW HOME.(Local)

Byline: Patrick Kurp Staff writer

From the tar-covered roof of his new building on River Street, Joe Fama surveyed some of the best and worst of the city's architecture.

To the north there's the elegant Rice Building from 1871, with its distinctive flatiron design. Across River Street, to the west, stands a row of 19th-century commercial buildings, still tricked out with "Age of Innocence" facades.

Then there's another, less aesthetically pleasing Troy: a parking garage, a bar that resembles a video arcade, and, a block to the north, the bunkerlike edifice of City Hall itself.

"Troy has lost a lot. I saw the tail end of the destruction. …