local demolition of SAGE building

Sat Jul 16 06:46:47 CDT 2005

I saw this in today's copy of my local newspaper 
on-line. The location of the building is in New 
Windsor, NY. Stewart International Airport -as 
some of you know- sits on the border of the Town 
of Newburgh and New Windsor. It used to be and 
still is to a degree, a major Marine, Army and 
Air Force base. More currently, it is a 
commercial international airport and a base for 
the Air Force, local Army and Air Force Reserves 
and touts a pair of the biggest runways in the 
USA. It is the 3rd location on the list for 
emergency landings for the Space Shuttles if 
something should go wrong. Unfortunately, as this 
piece suggests, the military has already removed 
the actual SAGE equipment from the building. I 
used to go on walks past this building as a kid 
as there is a path near it that my family would 
take through a wooded area (scenic stuff) and up 
until recently, was open to the public, sort of 
like a park. I figured I'd send this to cctech 
because it has a lot of historical relevance.
-John Boffemmyer IV

STORY AS FOLLOWS:

July 16, 2005

Cold War building faces colder reality
By Jeremiah Horrigan
    Times Herald-Record
    jhorrigan at th-record.com
    New Windsor – You'll find it on the edge of 
Stewart International Airport, a windowless, 
four-story concrete cube that looks like it could withstand a nuclear blast.
    And that's exactly what it was built to do. 
If things had gone as many Americans feared 
during the Cold War, if the Russian bombers had 
finally come over the horizon, the Semi-Automatic 
Ground Environment building was the key to the 
country's military defense system.
    The building that once thrummed with the 
tensions of a time when nuclear Armageddon was a 
constant threat was abandonned by the military 
decades ago. The unnerving skeleton of its legacy 
remain, including the war room, where 
etched-glass maps of the Eastern U.S. display 
likely Russian targets. Above the maps looms a 
doomsday tote board, meant to track the "progress" of World War III.
    Even before the '50s faded and ICBMs became 
the weapon of choice among the world's 
super-powers, the SAGE building had become as 
antiquated as an Edsel. It's now slated for the 
wrecking ball under the airport's new 20-year master plan for development.
    And that plan is under siege by a group of 
people who for years have been laboring to 
transform the SAGE building into what they call a Cold War Peace Museum.
    Ulster County Legislator Susan Zimet has 
spearheaded the effort, lobbying, fundraising and 
proselytizing on the building's behalf for the past five years.
    To her, the building isn't a dead relic but a 
living reminder of an era she believes we forget at our peril.
    "All the stuff we deal with daily – 
terrorism, the possibility of nuclear terror or 
the situation in Korea – it all began with the Cold War."
    Zimet's not much of a history buff herself, 
and, after years of exploring possibilities, 
she's doubtful the building is suitable for becoming a first-class museum.
    But that, she argues, doesn't mean the 
building should be demolished. Taking it down (at 
an estimated cost of nearly a million dollars) 
would be no different than destroying 
Washington's headquarters in Newburgh, she says.
    Tanya Vanasse toured the building's interior 
recently. She wasn't impressed. Vanasse is the 
airport's director of marketing. She sees no 
reason to keep the building around.
    The airport's master plan calls for the 
building to come down sometime between 2008 and 
2012, to make way for a rail yard that would be 
part of a new train station, according to Zimet.
    "I can see no viability of making this into a 
public space. It's far too dangerous, it's got 
far too many accessibility problems," she said 
last week. "I could see removing the (etched 
glass) pieces and building a display around them."
    Vanasse said the plan is open ended, that no 
hard-and-fast timetable exists. Nevertheless, 
Zimet's group is urging people to sign petitions 
that would preserve the building.
    In the meantime, the SAGE building, silent 
and foreboding as a tomb, continues to do what it has always done: It waits.

    Anti-blast from the past was built to last

    If it goes, the Semi-Automatic Ground 
Environment building won't go easily. Its thick, 
lead-reinforced concrete walls were intended to 
withstand the ravages of a nuclear holocaust. 
Only a direct hit could have taken it out.
    The building was designed in the mid-1950s as 
part of a network of identical 
information-gathering centers built throughout 
the country that was supposed to protect the 
country's nuclear bomber fleet. Its designers 
intentionally made it so nondescript that only a 
handful of military personnel even knew of its existence or purpose.
    Its computer system was beyond compare, 
requiring thousands of square feet and at least 
as many delicate transistors to track potential 
intruders. Watching the skies at a SAGE building 
console, said one retired Air Force veteran, was 
like something out of "Buck Rogers."
    But, like so many other state-of-the-art 
defense systems, this one was obsolete almost 
before it became operational. It was designed to 
combat nuclear bombers. By the end of the decade, 
intercontinental ballistic missiles had become 
the bomb delivery system of choice.
    The structure was officially decommissioned 
in 1969. Since then, it has served as a 
free-trade zone. Its ground floor is now occupied 
by a chocolate- packaging factory.
    Jeremiah Horrigan

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