Join Me (and Chuck Bucci) on October 24th for a Special Tour of Syracuse University Restored Buildings

Syracuse University. Tolley Humanities Center. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2010

Syracuse University. Crouse College. Stained glass windows detail.. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber.

Syracuse University. Slocum Hall. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2010

Join Me (and Chuck Bucci) on October 24th for a Special Tour of Syracuse University Restored Buildings

I'll be joined by professionals from the Syracuse University Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction to visit and discuss major restoration building on campus of the past five years. We'll talk about architecture, history, planning and restoration process, as well as the complex issues of need, use and cost that are essential to the success of the reinvention and reuse of any aolder building.

Here is the announcement:

Preservation Association of Central New York (PACNY) will offer a tour of three restored, rehabilitated, and reinvented buildings on the Syracuse University Campus. Join architectural historian Sam Gruber and campus planner Chuck Bucci on a visit to Crouse College, Tolley Humanities Center, and Slocum Hall as they discuss the history of these buildings and their architecture, and especially the long hard process of restoring and renovating these three structures in the past five years.

The tour will begin at 1:00 pm at the Crouse College south entrance (across from the Maxwell School) and will last 2 hours.

Crouse College was built in 1889 and is one of the original university buildings. Designed by noted Syracuse architect Archimedes Russell, its dramatic turreted form has long been a landmark on the Hill, dominating the area and visible from afar. The building now houses the main hub for SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts, the School of Music, several art studios, music practice rooms, a beautiful 1,000-seat auditorium, and Crouse's Holtkamp Organ. In 2005 PACNY awarded Syracuse University a Preservation Merit Award for its work on the restoration of the exterior masonry and the stained glass windows of Crouse College.

Tolley Humanities Center was also designed by Russell in 1889 as the Von Ranke Library, in a more severe medieval style, but still with turrets. In 1907, when Carnegie Library was built its purpose changed. Later it was named Tolley Hall and served as the university administration building. Since its 2007 renovation it has been the Humanities Center and houses a variety of interdisciplinary programs.

Slocum Hall was designed by Syracuse University School of Architecture professors Frederick W. Revels and Earl Hallenback and funded by philanthropist Mrs. Russell Sage as a memorial to her father. Construction began in April 1916, but due to World War I and labor shortages it was not finished until 1918. It served as the home of the agriculture school and other programs, including the School of Architecture. Last year, after a two-year renovation, the building became the home of the School of Architecture, which now occupies the entire building. The renovation was carried out by Garrison Architects, and is highlighted by the opening up of the building’s great atrium, which had been built over in past years to gain floor space.

Gruber and Bucci will discuss the broad process and implications of bringing old university buildings up to twenty-first century standards while still maintaining their historic form, and they will look at many of the details of how this was done in these three buildings. The tour will end with discussion of the University’s newest renovation project, now in its planning phase.

Donation for the tour will be $10.00 for PACNY Members and $12.00 for non-members.

Sam Gruber is past-president of PACNY, and is now Director of the Plastics Center at the Syracuse University Library. Chuck Bucci is Assistant Director for New Construction at the Syracuse University Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction. Adding their expertise to the tour will be Jack Osinski, Project Manager, and Chris Danek, Academic Space Planner, both from the Syracuse University Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction.

The member-based Preservation Association of Central New York has been the area’s citizen voice for historic preservation for over 35 years. Founded as a reaction to the widespread neglect and demolition of historic buildings and neighborhoods in the 1960’s, PACNY has led the successful effort to transform our community’s perception and care of its historic resources so that now the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County have over a dozen historic districts which contribute to the region’s cultural and economic vitality.

For further information about PACNY, contact Michael Flusche (President of PACNY) at 315-569-6761 or flusche99@yahoo.com. See the PACNY website at http://pacny.net/.

UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate will host the "Formerly Urban: Projecting Rust Belt Futures" conference at Syracuse University

Formerly Urban: Protecting Rust Belt Futures

An important conferenc will take place at the Syracuse Univeristy School of Architecture this week on "projecting rust belt futures." It looks like a very stimulating program, though I note the apparent exclusion of historic preservationists, and known developers who have used historic preservation as a catalyst for urban renewal (as has been done effectively in downtown Syracuse and in many other cities). I don't know the work of all the participants, so I might be mistaken. Certainly the local firm of Munly Brown Studio is located in an older bulding on Hanover Square (owned and also occupied by SU Dean Mark Robbins, also a participant). UPSTATe director Julia Czedrniak has been a lead advocate and designer of Syracuse's Connective Corridor.

UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate will host the "Formerly Urban: Projecting Rust Belt Futures" conference at Syracuse University School of Architecture October 13-14, 2010.

The two-day conference will focus on the future of shrinking cities in America's Rust Belt, underscoring the centrality of design and innovation in their revitalization. International experts from architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design, as well as planning, policy, finance and economics will consider the ways in which design innovation can create urbanity in weak market cities whose urban character has devolved radically due to economic, demographic, and physical change – cities that are now considered “formerly urban.”

“Although many metropolitan centers are growing rapidly,” says UPSTATE: director, Julia Czerniak, “rust belt cities suffer from the loss of city fabric, diminishing social welfare networks and basic services, eroding public school systems, the loss of industry, increasing amounts of tax delinquent and vacant land, crumbling infrastructure, and declining population. We’re looking forward to exploring these issues with such an impressive group of panelists.”

“This conference is part of an ongoing series that focuses on the city and contemporary best practices in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design,” says Mark Robbins, dean of the School of Architecture. “Through UPSTATE:, this forum explores approaches that will shape the future of our urban centers, locally and worldwide.”

Adriaan Geuze, renowned Dutch landscape architect and co-founder of West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, a leading design practice in Europe, will deliver the keynote lecture on Thursday, October 13 at 5:30 p.m.. West 8 and Geuze have established an international reputation with a unique approach to planning and design of the public environment. He is the winner of several international design competitions, including Governor’s Island in NYC, Playa de Palma in Mallorca, and Toronto’s New Central Waterfront.

Five sessions will examine: case studies of cities that have fostered vibrant civic life within diffuse urban fabrics; regional strategies such as planned shrinkage, consolidation, and land-banking; the potentials of landscape to build upon and maintain vast amounts of emerging land; ways in which buildings, infrastructure and other design interventions can catalyze urban effects; and financing structures for innovative development in weak market cities.

Participants: Theodore Brown, Professor, Syracuse Architecture, Partner, Munly Brown Studio

McLain Clutter, Assistant Professor, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan

Julia Czerniak, Associate Professor and Director, UPSTATE: at Syracuse Architecture; Founding Principal, CLEAR

Toni L. Griffin, Founder, Urban Planning & Design for the American City; Adjunct Associate Professor, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Rosanne Haggerty, President and Founder, Common Ground Eelco Hooftman, Partner and Co-Founder, GROSS. MAX. landscape architects

Mark Linder, Associate Professor, Syracuse Architecture; Principal, CLEAR James F. Lima, Partner, HR&A Advisors, Inc. Brian Lonsway, Associate Professor, Syracuse Architecture

Sébastien Marot, PhD, Professor of History and Theory, École d'Architecture de la Ville et des Territoires

Jonathan Marvel, Principal and Co-Founder, Rogers Marvel Architects

Don Mitchell, Distinguished Professor, Department of Geography, Syracuse University

Edward Mitchell, Principal, Edward Mitchell Architects; Assistant Professor, Yale University School of Architecture

Hunter Morrison, Director, Office of Campus Planning and Community Partnerships, Youngstown State University

Anne Munly, Professor, Syracuse Architecture; Partner, Munly Brown Studio

Marc Norman, Vice President, Deutsche Bank Community Development Finance Group Darren Petrucci, Professor and Director, Herberger Institute School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture, Arizona State University; Principal and Founder, A-I-R [Architecture-Infrastructure-Research] Inc.

Damon Rich, Urban Designer, City of Newark; Founder, Center for Urban Pedagogy

Mark Robbins, Professor and Dean, Syracuse University School of Architecture

Roger Sherman, Principal and Founder, Roger Sherman Architecture + Urban Design; Adjunct Associate Professor and Co-Director at cityLAB, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design

Charles Waldheim, Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Mark Willis, Resident Research Fellow, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York University

Jane Wolff, Associate Professor and Director, Master of Landscape Architecture Program, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, the University of Toronto

Andrew Zago, Founder and Principal, Zago Architecture; Design Faculty, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)

UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate was established at the Syracuse University School of Architecture in 2005 to engage innovative design and development practices and address critical issues of urban revitalization. A book based on the “Formerly Urban” conference will be published in spring 2012 through a collaboration of Syracuse Architecture and Princeton Architectural Press , funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation. The “Formerly Urban” conference is supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the Deutsche Bank Foundation, with additional support provided by the Central New York Community Foundation. The conference is free and open to the public. On October 13, sessions begin at 1:00 p.m.; on October 14 at 9:00 a.m.. For more information, visit soa.syr.edu/formerlyurban