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THE I-81 PROJECT IN SYRACUSE: COMPLEX HISTORY | COMPLEX COMMUNITY by Robert Haley, AIA Emeritis, LEED AP for The AIACNY I-81 Task Force
“If you see a job that needs to be done, and no one’s doing it… then it’s your job” Buckminster Fuller The AIA Central New York Chapter (AIACNY) has a long history of advocating for excellence in architectural design. We tend to be trained to make great architecture. But truly meaningful architecture is based in a specific context. And this context is informed by many aspects within each community. So we, as talented “visionaries and analytical problem solving professionals,” need to become more involved with the workings and needs of each community we engage. How does a community organize itself and get ready for a “once in a lifetime,” 50 year planning opportunity? A community that has been numbed by generations of environmental and economic damage, the deterioration of 40-50 bridges, unsafe intersections, excess speeds and limited access to destinations, while providing 25 minute commutes in a 20 minute town. So it’s not about the travel times, but about correcting the long overdue environmental, social and economic damage of the past 60 years. That is a complex and big “problem statement.” Although “patched and fixed” over the last 20 years, the I-81 Interstate in Syracuse has produced the 24 hour vibration, PAGE 14 | MARCH ‘22
noise and pollution to deliver high speed corridor “through,” and not necessarily “to” city destinations. Fifty to sixty year old steel and concrete could no longer be “patched” and had to be “demolished.” The elevated viaduct has to be torn down, but it did not have to be re-built. The window was open for the fresh air of new ideas and possibilities for the city. And that included many different points of view. The history of Syracuse is both typical and uniquely complex. The original residential neighborhoods in the central 15th Ward are totally gone now, developed over the first 100 years of Syracuse history. With the 1930s decade of depression era economics and joblessness, this older area of the city had become run down. This, plus the harmful “redlining” banking policy hidden under the New Deal policies, strangled needed investment and repairs for homes and businesses throughout the 15th Ward. It was a hidden economic policy for disinvestment in cities all across established older Eastern cities. The “15th Ward,” then home to Black, Jewish and immigrant residents, became known as “the slums.” The planning problems begin with post depression era, social rebuilding programs, including initiatives like public housing. Syracuse had an estimated 9,000 residents living in sub-standard housing. As the city grew, renovating older neighborhoods would provide more space for downtown development. The first step was to provide public housing for those in need. And later, those who were able, chose to relocate to existing neighborhoods, east and south of the 15th Ward neighborhood.
