My Upcoming Lecture: "Temple Concord, Jewish Architecture and City Beautiful"

My Upcoming Lecture: "Temple Concord, Jewish Architecture and City Beautiful"

You are invited to the upcoming (free) illustrated talk “Temple Concord, Jewish Architecture and City Beautiful,” at Temple Concord next Monday, April 11, at 6 pm.

The talk is part of the on-going celebration of the centennial the National Register listed sanctuary which will culminate with a public re-dedication in September. The talk, co-sponsored by Preservation Association of Central New York (PACNY), is part of Temple Concord’s ongoing series featuring Syracuse University faculty presenting their work to an audience further down the Hill.

I will discuss the architecture of Temple Concord in the context of American synagogue design, the evolution of Reform Judaism and as an example of early 20th century civic architecture.



The talk will address several of my ongoing research/activist interests – synagogue architecture, the history of urban planning, and the past and future of Syracuse. Just as today; Concord when designed and built (1909-1911) was literally a pivotal building on the Connective Corridor. Its design had roots in consulting-architect Arnold Brunner’s (with Alfred Taylor) past work and writing about the origins of the synagogue, but it also was tied to the new Neo-Classical plan adopted by Syracuse University in 1906 and the completion of the new County Courthouse downtown the same year.




lecIn 1910, Brunner, who was the favorite architect of the New York Jewish establishment, became president of the American Institute of Architects New York chapter. He was nationally recognized as the leading designer and historian of synagogues in America, but also as one of the country’s foremost urban planners, thinkers and the most public and articulate spokesperson for what he called “City Practical.,” but which we now think of as the City Beautiful Movement. The same year that Concord was dedicated, Brunner’s Cleveland Federal Building was also completed culminating Brunner’s decade service with Daniel Burnham and John Carrere as the triumvirate behind the famed Cleveland Plan.

Scottholm Neighborhood Documented By Cornell Students

Scottholm Neighborhood Documented by Cornell Students
by Samuel D. Gruber

Early in December representatives from the city's Bureau of Planning & Sustainability and students from Cornell University's Historic Preservation Program presented some of their results of a survey of 175 residential properties in Syracuse's attractive Scottholm neighborhood, on the East Side, two miles from downtown. Dick Case has already reported on the presentation and summarizes some of the findings in the Post-Standard, but I present some additional information and my own take on the history and the process.



The Cornell group presented their work in an attractive booklet that summarizes the history of the neighborhood and its development as well as the various styles of domestic architecture built - mostly during the 1920s. The publication is available on the City's website, through the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability page: http://www.syracuse.ny.us/uploadedFiles/Departments/Planning_and_Sustainability/Content/Scottholm%20booklet%20-%20FINAL_small.pdf. a color-coded map showing all house and street names and numbers and the periods of developments is particular helpful (especially to people like me who need help labeling photos when the house number is clearly visible).


Much of the booklet is taken up with reprinting style definitions from standard handbooks, but this may be useful to area residents, especially when the styles are applied to specific neighborhood houses, a few of which are featured as "house spotlights." Because of the nature of the accessible sources, most of the descriptive texts for individual houses is about the history of ownership with little specific information about the architect or designer, or the sources of the ready made plans.
It is often now impossible to recovery this information, or its take luck in finding plans, correspondence or recorded and signed contracts.

Development of the area began with creation of Genesee Turnpike, now Genesee Street in the 1830s, but what would became “Scottholm Estates” was sketched out in 1914 and lots were sold beginning in 1915. The survey identifies only about thirty houses as dating from from the 1915-1925. Most date from the late 1920s and some even from the early 1930s, suggesting the effects of the Depression took a while to by fully felt by Syracuse's white collar (and white color) commercial and other professionals, who made up a substantial portion of the neighborhood residents. Scottholm was designed by a landscape architect and planner Arthur C. Comey following the popular ideals for new garden suburbs easily reached by streetcar from urban commercial centers. These new developments, of which Syracuse has several notable examples, are typified by winding streets, mandated setbacks and front yards, organized tree-planting alongside sidewalks, and various protective covenants regarding ownership qualifications. The stone gates at the entrance to the neighborhood at Scottholm from East Genesee Street remain in place.

John W. Reps provides this biographical information about Comey on his invaluable website about American urban planning history before 1914:

Arthur Coleman Comey (1886-1954) graduated cum laude from Harvard University at the age of twenty­one in 1907 with a degree in landscape architecture. His teacher, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. helped place Comey in his first two positions as a park planner in Dixon, Illinois and as Superintendent of Parks in Utica, New York. In 1911 Comey returned to Cambridge where he began his practice as "Consultant on City Planning." In 1912 the City of Houston, Texas, retained him to prepare a city planning report, and he wrote this article that October proposing a system of regulating building height and bulk and the minimum size of lots.

In 1911 he decided to enter the international competition for the design of the Australian Federal Capital. Although he did not win a prize, his design was the second choice of the minority judge. Comey's career as a city planner had only begun. He entered and won second prize in 1913 in a competition sponsored by the Chicago City Club for the design of a typical 160­ acre tract in that city. In 1914 he won first prize of $5,000 in a competition with 146 participants for the design of a 350­ acre harbor, industrial, business, and residential complex at Richmond, California.

In 1914 he also began work on a study of suburban planning for the City Plan and Improvement Commission of Detroit. He also designed the garden suburb of Billerica, Massachusetts, a state-sponsored project. By 1917 Comey had served at least nine towns and cities, including Beverly, Brookline, Cambridge, Fitchburg, and Lawrence, all in the state of Massachusetts, and Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

He also was a Town Planner for the U. S. Housing Corporation in 1918 and 1919. Doubtless he drew on this experience during his twelve­year teaching career that began in 1928 when he was appointed a lecturer in the School of Landscape Architecture. He became an Assistant Professor in Harvard's School of City Planning and an Associate Professor in the Department of Regional Planning. During the 1930's and early 1940s he was also consultant to the U.S. National Resources Planning Board. With Max S. Wehrly Comey prepared a major study of American planned communities.

Comey was at one time an associate editor of the National Municipal Review and edited for publication in the Harvard City Planning Series a collection of the papers of Alfred Bettman. His own study for that series, Transition Zoning, published in 1933, reflects his interest in the legal and regulatory aspect of planning that he saw as necessary as ability in design. Among his other publications are Regional Planning Theory and Integration of the New England Regional Plan.

Comey helped found and became secretary and later vice chairman of the Massachusetts Federation of Planning Boards. He was a founding member of the American City Planning Institute in 1917 and was a member of its Board of Governors. He was a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Consulting Engineers, and the American Planning and Civic Association. He was also president of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects.

His most elaborate contribution to Landscape Architecture was his "Regional Planning Theory: A Reply to the British Challenge," published in 1923. Illustrated with several line drawings and color plates, this advocated a policy of multi­directional city growth along radial transportation lines laid out on hexagonal patterns.

One interesting fact from the student's research is that a “considerable Jewish presence in the Scottholm tract, beginning in the first decades through the 20th century.” This reflects the first big move east of the City's more affluent Jewish community, especially those like the Marksons (documented here) in retail trade. According to the report: "A notable business in Syracuse, the Markson Brothers company specialized in the sale of furniture and other home goods. Started by four Polish immigrant brothers in 1905, Markson Brothers had stores in downtown Syracuse, Utica, Auburn, Oswego, and Rome. Several members of the next generation of Marksons continued to operate the business for years to come. Interestingly, several members of the Markson family decided to settle in Scottholm during its first years of development." The extended Markson family occupied at least four houses in the development.

The presence of Jews in Scottholm in its early years probably distingishes it from most other garden suburbs. However, it does reflect the outward migration of Jews from city centers that began even before the widespread development of ex-urban suburbs following World War II. Similar migration patterns of Jews (and other immigrant groups) along streetcar lines can be seen in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and many other cities.

There are some large and distinctive houses in the neighborhood, especially on Scottholm Boulevard and the north end of Scottholm Terrance when some interesting houses are built high in and up on the hillside. But since most Scottholm houses were built at a time of design and material standardization. Structurally most houses are the same, and what is called "style" is most often only represents modest different - perhaps the angle of a roof line, the proportion of windows, the type of siding preferred, or the decoration. There is no historic and little social difference between a 1920s "colonial," "Tudor," or Spanish," house when built on the same street in the same neighborhood. Similar houses are can be found in developments across the United States. The most significant difference which might given some insight into the original owner's taste or status is whether the house is a standard purchased pattern from a book, builder's catalog or developments template or whether it is a unique architect-designed house. In Central New York as in most of country the former type is the norm.

We do have in Syracuse, however, houses designed by Ward Wellington Ward (such Sanderson House at 301 Scottholm Blvd), Albert Brockway and a few others that have been documented, and possibly many others still to be researched. Some of these can be found in Scottholm. One of the most significant houses in the Scottholm neighborhood is excluded from the survey because of its relatively recent date, but this the Louis and Celia Skoler Residence at 213 Scottholm Terrace designed in 1957 by Louis Skoler (d. 2008). It is one of the most significance modern houses in the region, and is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a designated local protected site (another fine Skoler House can be seen as 953 Comstock Ave. near the University where Skoler taught in the School of Architecture for 30 years).

The real meat of the Scottholm survey will be the reports on the history and architecture of the individual properties - and this has not yet been released. Katelyn Wright, a land use planner for the city says that it should be forthcoming early in 2011.

This survey is one small but necessary step in the improvement of the city's information regarding history and architecture. Relatively speaking - this project was an easy one - since it deals with properties built more or less at the same time under similar circumstances, and still occupied and well maintained. Fortunately, much information on such residential areas can be found through reviews of deed histories, city directories and importantly the real estate pages of the Post-Standard which are quite informative for new development after about 1910. Alas, we lack such details reporting for most 19th century neighborhoods - especially those on the West and North sides. Since those are the areas more deteriorated and endangered, they are the areas that cry out for research and better listing on the city's historic property registers.

We have now documented the post-World War I houses and landscaped developments of Sedgewick, Berkeley Park Strathmore and Scottholm. We really need to turn our attention to the more distressed areas of the city.

Unlike in Scottholm, unfortunately this is work not so easily done as course work for students, and the City has not in the past allocated funds for this kind of work, and is especially short of resources now. The likelihood of being able to hire graduated (and experienced) preservationists to do this work is slight. It is hoped, however, that with the new committed staff at the city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, that outside resources may be procured.

Meanwhile, local professional and organizations will as always be called on to fill the informational breach. In the past this has been mostly in reaction to specific threats, often at the eleventh hour and too late. It is hoped that the new preservation planners will be able to better identify endangered areas, and marshall talent and resources to these sites.

According to Katelyn Wright "With regard to a preservation plan, City preservation staff (Kate Auwaerter and myself) are currently in the preliminary stages of developing a strategic plan for the local preservation program. We expect this plan to include many of the strategies called for in the ESF plan and are consulting the faculty that were involved in that effort." The ESF plan was a major step forward in articulating a rationale city policy toward historic preservation, and clearly demonstrating links between preservation, land use, quality of life and economically sustainable development. Unfortunately, until now it has largely been ignored. You can read of copy of it here.

Katelyn and Kate will publicly share some of these plans and their thoughts on local preservation priorities at the PACNY annual meeting on January 23rd. Meantime, a one-page handout outlining the City's preservation policy and priorities is available here: http://www.syracuse.ny.us/uploadedFiles/Departments/Planning_and_Sustainability/Content/Preservation%20Handout.pdf

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