For more than 50 years, the New York State Bar Association has been headquartered in a row of historic townhouses located at One Elk Street in downtown Albany. Located a short walk from both the State Capitol and the Court of Appeals building, the state bar headquarters has been more than just a place for the 70,000-member organization to hold meetings and CLEs. The place is steeped in history, decorated with ornate cornices, handsome chandeliers and murals depicting what the streetscape may have looked like in 1876, the state bar's founding year. Some in the association have developed a deep attachment to the center through the years. "There is not another building with One Elk's lineage," Lesley Rosenthal, president of the New York Bar Foundation, which is the state bar's sister organization and the landlord at One Elk, said at an April 10 digital meeting of the association's House of Delegates. "One Elk Street reminds us of the heritage and the aspiration of noteworthy design," Rosenthal continued. "The importance of placemaking, the expressions of meaning, value, history and high purpose that buildings can carry, far greater than the sum of their bricks and mortar." But state bar leaders, and many within its organization, say it's time for hard financial realities to trump sentimentality. Repairs and renovations for One Elk are expected to run $18 million over the next 10 years while revenues from membership dues are on the decline. According to current estimates, the state bar could run a $6 million deficit in its operating budget in 10 years if it does not change course, President-Elect T. Andrew Brown told the Law Journal. "While we all feel emotionally connected to the bar center and have many happy memories there, we must be realistic about whether the considerable space, which requires a significant financial investment to be brought up to code, continues to be necessary in the so-called new normal," state bar President Scott Karson, who leaves office at the end of the month, said in remarks during the April 10 meeting. Paying the rent and maintaining the building in the coming years may soon become a financial millstone that drags the association into the red as it contends with falling revenue from membership dues, they argue. The state bar's lease for the 60,000 square-foot One Elk, for which it pays more than $302,000 annually, is up on December 31. Leaders say that's a fitting time to find a new home. They have already begun to stake out the Albany real estate market for something smaller and cheaper. The association has already cut about a third of its staff to help make ends meet and found other ways to reduce costs. But Brown and other leaders say it can't cut any further without diminishing the quality of the services the state bar provides. "The theoretical endpoint is we have one employee," Karson said. Additionally, leaders note, most state bar members will never set foot in the group's headquarters — while those who do visit only do so once or twice a year — and there's a growing preference for holding meetings digitally. In a recent survey, 63 percent of the membership said they would prefer more association events be held digitally, Brown said. Some state bar members say, however, that the association has not fully considered alternatives to leaving its headquarters behind. The foundation argues that there is a potential "public relations risk" associated with a hasty departure from One Elk in that it could distract from good works such as advocating for greater access to justice and has offered to extend the State Bar's lease for up to three additional years. But some have proposed that the two groups discuss mortgage financing for repairs. Others have suggested that the association assume ownership of the center. "This will also give us further insight into the marketability of the building should we decide to sell or dispose of some or all of it," foundation members wrote in a report to the House of Delegates. The body has called a Saturday meeting on May 22 to discuss the future of One Elk, a state bar spokesperson said. A 'Case for Historical District Preservation' One Elk sits on what was once known as "Quality Row," a line of tony townhouses abutting Albany's seats of power, at times housing prominent lawyers and politicians. Enos Throop, an attorney and New York's governor from 1829 to 1835 — as well as the namesake for boulevards in the Bronx and Brooklyn — resided in one of the buildings. Franklin D. Roosevelt lived in another from 1910 to 1912 while he was in the State Senate. The Elk Street townhouses were fused together in the 1960s and the state bar took up residence in 1969. In her 1986 book "Goodbye History, Hello Hamburger: An Anthology of Architectural Delights and Disasters," the late architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable described One Elk as a demonstration of "how to use the past without turning it into a charade" and to put the 19th-century buildings into good use for future generations. "The preservation of these architectural middling but urbanistically significant rowhouses occasioned a marshalling of many different preservation interests," Huxtable wrote. "A classic case for historic district preservation resulted, to which the bar association and its architect, James Stewart Polshek, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, responded successfully." But as many in the state bar and in other trade and social organizations across the United States have conceded, things have changed. People just aren't flocking to join clubs quite like they used to. The state bar had about 78,000 members in 2010, roughly 8,000 more than what it counts today. Over that time, revenue from dues fell from more than $11 million to $8.2 million in the current fiscal year, in which there is a total of $24 million in the budget. The association and bar groups across New York have kvetched for years over attorneys' waning interest in joining their ranks, particularly among young lawyers. Diane O'Connell, immediate past chair of the state bar's international section, said newer attorneys often pass on bar associations because they have to grapple with "student loans the size of mortgages" and sky-high housing costs. Thus, many simply don't have the time for extracurriculars. "If lawyers graduate from law school and they're going to join a bar association and their main goal is to find a job, then really what they want to know is what the bar association can do to help them find a job," O'Connell said. "They're not as interested in the CLE credits or other networking things or giving back to the community. Which is important, but when you have to pay your rent it becomes less important." Michael Miller, a state bar past president, pointed to Robert Putman's 2000 book "Bowling Alone," in which the author examines that Americans' are exceedingly less interested in joining clubs and becoming civically engaged. Bar groups are no exception, he said. As far as debating what groups should do about maintaining their headquarters as membership numbers decline and maintenance costs pile up, Miller has been here before. Miller is a also past president of the Manhattan-based New York County Lawyers Association and serves on the group's board of directors. In 2019, the group it sold off its majestic Vesey Street headquarters in Lower Manhattan — designed by the same architect as the architect for the U.S. Supreme Court building — after calling it home for nine decades. For Miller, a bar group should be defined by its mission rather than its address. "It's not brick and mortar," Miller said. "It's not a geographic location on a map. It's a set of principles." But Stephen Younger, also a past state bar president and prominent commercial litigator who supports staying in One Elk, said that association leaders should not throw up their hands and decide to leave without considering more options. "We have been quite troubled at the lack of accurate information that has been given to our House and to our members, about the options and about the ramifications for staying," Younger said. He continued: "I think most fundamentally, we're very disturbed that a discussion between an association and its charitable arm has been turned into an adversarial negotiation. We should be working together to find solutions, not working at odds with each other." Rosenthal told the Law Journal that the foundation has advocated for state bar leaders to exercise patience in its decision to move out of One Elk but that it has not taken an official position on whether or not to stay. "While we recognize the need for a solution to address immediate concerns, it would be an error to rush into a decision or take shortcuts in this complicated time," Rosenthal said. In a statement issued in response Younger's comment, Karson denied that state bar leaders have misled members about the costs associated with staying in One Elk. "We have gone to great lengths to make sure the House of Delegates has accurate information about this decision and have provided all the relevant documents to them," Karson said. "We have discussed this issue with the House before and are doing it again this Saturday. We have been nothing but transparent." READ MORE: |