IDA Housing Towers 260-270

History of the Towers

Just outside of the heart of Albany stands the Ida Yarbrough Towers, constructed in the early 1970’s thanks to the hard work of its founder Ida Yarbrough herself. Born Ida Mae Tucker in 1896 in Semora, N.C she moved to Albany in 1918 she was a strong Black woman who is quoted saying “people should try understanding each other and just do their best themselves, you have to work to earn the respect of others” she sadly passed away in 1969, 2 years before the project was completed in 1971.

MZ Begins Renovations in 2020

The renovation here started in 2020 and with the pandemic putting a hold on things work did not really get rolling until 2021. Lead by one of Martin Zombek’s (MZ) top field supervisors, Larry Comstock (now a project manager), knowing the history of the building took immense pride in its renovation. He brought on guys that shared his pride and embodied the same work ethic.

Once everything was safely demoed, the crew got to work replacing outdated walls and ceilings and updating the interior to brighten and bring a more modern look. When starting the project, it seemed to be a simple task, but with the building being built in the ‘70s, there were some challenges.

Each building consisted of 112 apartments meaning there was a lot of work to be done and with a tight deadline and trying to get people back in their homes as quickly as possible we had to figure out way of speeding things up without losing our quality standard. To do this we utilized our prefab department lead at the time by Derek Gibbs, him and his team prefabbed all the sheetrock for headers, soffits, and fan coil units. He also prefabbed all the brackets and sheathing used to build the cornices for a much need exterior update to the top of the buildings.