Padraic Bambrick

While born and raised on Long Island, Padraic Bambrick has called Albany, more specifically the Center Square-Hudson Park Historic District, his home for the majority of the last two decades. Mr. Bambrick now lives with his partner Cara in the Grange Sard, Jr. House overlooking Washington Park. As a lobbyist, he spends his days walking the halls of another Richardsonian Romanesque building, the New York State Capitol. He received a bachelor’s degree in history at SUNY Albany and began a career in politics at the tail end of the Pataki administration, representing non-profits such as the Bronx Zoo and Fortune-500 companies alike. He recently earned an MBA in a part-time program while working as Manager of State Government Affairs at National Grid, where he continues to work to this day. Working at National Grid to arbitrate customer concerns and simply listening to his neighbors while walking through Center Square, Mr. Bambrick is keenly aware of the priority placed on building preservation and the need to support the natural and cultural heritage of the City of Albany. Mr. Bambrick takes pride in the history of Albany and its national and global footprint and strives to pass that sentiment on to future generations.

 

Elizabeth Benjamin

Liz Benjamin is Managing Director – Albany, for Marathon Strategies, a full-service communications and public affairs firm based in New York City. Prior to joining Marathon, Liz was a reporter with more than two decades of experience covering Capital Region, state and New York City government and politics. Over her career, Liz covered a wide array of complex and controversial policy debates – including in the historic preservation sphere. Her expertise includes print, TV and digital reporting and commentary. Liz began her career at the Albany Times Union, where she spent 10 years moving from covering local government and Albany City Hall to the state Capitol. While at the Capitol, she was the paper’s lead political reporter and launched Capitol Confidential, the Capitol’s first blog, which is still going strong. She then spent four years at the New York Daily News as a political blogger and columnist. For the final eight years of her journalistic career, Liz hosted “Capital Tonight,” a landmark political and policy show on Spectrum News, and edited the show’s companion blog, State of Politics.

 

Paige Barnum

Paige Barnum is a Senior Planner with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP). She has worked as a planner with the agency since 2018. Prior to joining OPRHP, Barnum worked in several local government offices–from Oxford, Mississippi to Los Angeles, California–focusing principally on current and historic preservation planning practice. Barnum completed her Masters in Regional Planning from Cornell University in 2017 and achieved the American Institute of Certified Planner credential from the American Planning Association in 2020. Barnum currently serves on the executive board of the Albany Public Library Board of Trustees; Vice President of the Center Square Association; and as a member of the City of Albany's Board of Zoning Appeals.

 

Michelle Bruck

Michelle Bruck is a committed preservationist who is passionate about Albany history, architecture and maintaining the city’s built environment. She has owned her 1889 historic row house in Center Square since 2006. Michelle has served on the Center Square Association board of directors as Director of Communications since 2013. In addition, she has been a core committee member since 2014 for the annual Hidden City House and Garden Tour, now the Albany Stoop Stroll. Michelle has an English degree from the State University of New York at Oneonta, and manages the website by day for the NYS Department of Public Service.

 

Schuyler Bull

Schuyler Bull is vice president of marketing at Pioneer, a local financial services firm. He also owns the Fort Orange General Store, a specialty retail shop in downtown Albany that has hosted a number of HAF lectures on nearby 48 Hudson, which was coincidentally built by his 6th great-grandfather. Schuyler is a two-time graduate of the College of Saint Rose where he currently serves as a member of the Community of Excellence Committee, recognizing outstanding leadership in the community while raising funds for student scholarships. He previously worked at Discover Albany and the Downtown Albany Business Improvement District. He and Jeremy Boyce purchased their home on Manning Boulevard in 2018.

 

Jake Capecelatro

Jake Capecelatro is a real estate attorney with Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP. Jake’s practice includes representation of developers, lenders, purchasers and sellers throughout all stages of commercial and residential transactions and closings. Jake was born and raised in Utica, NY, and has lived in the Albany area for over 10 years – 7 of which were in the Center Square neighborhood. Jake has a special appreciation for Albany’s historic architecture and strives to uphold HAF’s mission to preserve and protect that history.

 

April Fallon

Originally from Long Island, April went to RPI for her undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering and Sustainability Studies and enjoyed her time there and the Capital Region so much she decided to stay. She fell in love with the historic downtowns and the charming homes and scenery of the area, and started looking at listings in the area and dreaming of one day giving new life to an old house. April started her journey of getting her real estate license after realizing how wonderful it would be to help others find their dream homes. She recently bought a home built in 1884 and has been working hard to preserve it. Since becoming a realtor, she has tried to capture some of the historic homes and buildings that Albany and the capital region are so lucky to have. She’s looking forward to giving Albany's history a voice and work toward its preservation with HAF.

 

James Gaughan

James Gaughan has over 30 years of extensive experience in the New York public education sector, serving for 10 years as NYS’s Title I Coordinator and Chief for School Improvement at the State Education Department. Since 1984, Jim has resided in Altamont with his spouse, Keith Lee. For 32 years, they lived in one of the Village’s historic homes built in 1885. Jim served as Altamont’s Mayor for 12 years during which he implemented several initiatives that highlight Altamont’s rich history and culture, crafted to enhance the Village’s economic development and uniqueness in Albany County. He also spearheaded the installation of a walking tour of Altamont’s historic buildings.

 

Kori Graves

Kori Graves is a history professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York.

 

Christopher Hacker

Christopher Hacker is the owner of Albany Artisans, a local contracting company specialising in restoration. Chris Hacker and his team at Albany Artisans have had a profound impact on Albany’s historic neighborhoods, having been the craftsman behind the restoration of many vacant buildings. In 1997, Chris purchased his family’s generational home at 748 Madison Avenue and carefully reconstructed the porch from the original drawings, earning the first of many recognitions for his work. Chris is a Commissioner on the Historic Resources Commission. As a side project, he is also the project manager for the Sword Surrender Site at the Saratoga Battlefield at where Burgoyne surrendered to the Americans in 1777.

 

Stephen Hickey

Steve is a retired CPA who owns a home in Center Square, Albany.

 

David Hinchen

David Hinchen is a full-time artist who has spent the last 30 years creating drawings and paintings of historic homes and landmark buildings in Metro New York, the Hudson Valley, Greater Boston and throughout New England. He has been a participating artist at BUILT, HAF’s annual art auction since 2000, winning numerous awards. David and Duane Barker purchased their home on Manning Boulevard in 2002 and spent every weekend for seven years slowly restoring each room. converting it back to a single family residence. In 2016, David and his father purchased two brownstones with eight apartments on Eagle Street. He is managing the building and currently working on renovating one apartment per year.

 
 

Faraz Khan

Faraz Khan is principal in CPC Development and owner of Khan Construction and Development and has a passion for historic restoration. Faraz and his wife Mehak were awarded a Preservation Merit Award in 2022 for the restoration of their Thurlow Terrace home in Albany.

 

Julie Lundgren

Julie Lundgren is currently a State Parks Ecologist with the New York Natural Heritage Program where she is a Project Leader for their partnership with NY State Parks. She helps to inventory, evaluate and map natural communities and rare species in parks across the state, maintain detailed databases and provide conservation advice to State Parks biologists and managers. Julie has also been a long term volunteer at HAF with many events including the Holiday House Tour, Moveable Feast, and BUILT – both as a volunteer and artist, and is an avid salvage volunteer with the HAF Parts Warehouse.

 

Beth Mosall

Beth is an architect by profession with a passion for historic architecture and craftsmanship. She is also the principal and owner of DBBM through which she designs sensi- tive additions and garages for historic houses, creates scopes of work; and does scope and design work on the rehabilitation of historic houses, commercial and mixed use buildings across the greater Capital Region. While she talks the talk in her professional life, Beth walks the walk in her daily life. In her “free time,” Beth has restored two historic houses in the Pine Hills neighborhood, a two family home at 892 Mercer Street (a 2019 Preservation Merit Award winning project) and her own home on South Pine Avenue. She can often be found stripping paint, sourcing salvage, cleaning salvaged tile, and restoring wood windows.

 

Charles Silverstein

Charles P. Silverstein is a life-long Albany resident who grew up in the Pine Hills section of Albany. His turn-of-the century childhood home inspired his love of the fine craftsmanship and architecture of that period. A graduate of Christian Brothers Academy and Siena College, Charles has dual masters degrees from the College of Saint Rose and is a policy analyst for the New York State Senate for over ten years. Charles resided in a condominium that is an adaptive re-use of an old Albany public school, and is a partner in a business that carefully restores, rehabilitates and maintains 19th century properties in downtown Albany.