'60 Minutes' Shines Spotlight On Poughkeepsie Man Helping To Restore Once-Thriving Industrial City
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Sunday on "60 Minutes," Leslie Stahl talked to a man who was inspired to become an architect when he returned home to be with his dying father.
The two of them worked together, restoring the family's historic home in Poughkeepsie, then he helped restore the city.
"He said, 'You're doing all this work in Haiti and Rwanda. When are you gonna come back to your hometown and work with us in Poughkeepsie? We need a lotta help,'" Michael Murphy said.
Poughkeepsie, like many once-thriving industrial cities, had seen factories close, its downtown choked off by highways, its storefronts boarded up. To top it off, its creek flooded during Hurricane Irene.
"We had just been in one of the most rural places in the world, and we had seen a hospital change the economy," Murphy said. "I said, 'Why can't we do that same thing here in Poughkeepsie?'"
So MASS Design Group opened a small office on Main Street and got to work, converting the city's old trolley barn into an art space and designing housing. It's helping turn an old building into a food hall and converting a long-abandoned factory into a new headquarters for the environmental group Scenic Hudson.
You can see the full "60 Minutes" report here.