Dean Leander Harding, left, and volunteer All Saints Cathedral member John Zagame, stand in a crumbling meeting room of the Guild House, built in 1902 as a memorial to a young parishioner who died, the structure has been unoccupied since 1978.

Dean Leander Harding, left, and John Zagame, are leading an effort to save the derelict 1902 Guild House, behind the Episcopal All Saints Cathedral, which has fallen into severe disrepair.

Several stained glass windows have survived more than 30 years of neglect in the Guild House, designed by Marcus T. Reynolds, Albany’s most celebrated architect.

Dean Leander Harding, left, and John Zagama stand in front of the ornate brick and stone Guild House. The two men are attempting to raise $5 million through private donations and grants to return the elegant building to its original use as a settlement house to provide literacy classes and job training for refugees and newly arrived immigrants in need.

Dean Leander Harding looks over some of the models created by RPI architectural students, who spent a semester envisioning adaptive reuses that preserved the historic exterior and utilized cutting-edge materials and sustainable geothermal energy on the interior.

ALBANY — The sight is enough to make an architect weep.

An inch of pigeon guano-caked hardwood floors rotted into gaping gashes. Thieves long ago stripped copper gutters and downspouts, causing decades of rainwater to pour in, heaving interior brick walls and destroying joists and ceilings.

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An icy January wind whistled through broken windows, like the soundtrack of a lost cause.

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The historic Guild House behind the landmark Cathedral of All Saints — tucked down an afterthought alleyway in claustrophobic proximity to the imposing state Education Building — appeared to my untrained eye to be........

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