From Dream to Design

On behalf of the board of directors and advisory council of the Hoosic River Revival (HRR), I thank Williams Magazine for acknowledging the good work done by the students in Sarah Gardner’s fall 2015 Environmental Planning class (“Environmental Planning,” spring 2016). The students developed a most interesting, creative yet practical series of alternatives for the North Branch of our inaccessible, unhealthy, unattractive, concrete-channelized river. In keeping with Williams’ commitment to involve students in experiential learning (as promoted so long ago by the late Professor Robert Gaudino), I would like to publicly thank other Williams students/grads for what they have done to help our young organization move from “dream to design”: Brian Cole ’11, Mike Drzyzga ’10, Andrew Gaidus ’11 and Clint Robins ’11 from Professor Gardner’s 2009 Environmental Planning class for their thoughtful plan to restore a section of the South Branch of the Hoosic River; Tom Gaidus ’13 for working with our board to design our first Historical Walking Brochure (recently updated); Ellie Wachtel ’17, who interned with us in summer 2015 and modeled a historical, interactive map of 1940 North Adams on the similarly designed map of the Williams campus; and Sam Park ’17, who also interned with us in summer 2015 and worked with local filmmaker Bill Matthiesen ’70 to create a short video highlighting the historical role of the river in North Adams and HRR proposals to transform the river from an eyesore to an asset. Most recently, the project manager for our $500,000 conceptual plan for the South Branch and design for the Phase One restoration was Nick Nelson ’03, fluvial geomorphologist with Inter-Fluve Inc. All of this work can be found on our website: www.HoosicRiverRevival.org.

—Judy Grinnell, founder and president of the Hoosic River Revival and wife of Bruce Grinnell ’62