The I-81 Project in Syracuse: Complex History | Complex Community

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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, 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.

Top: View from Genessee Street in Syracuse, NY. Bottom: View from Almond Street in Syracuse, NY. 1938 Pioneer Homes project.

Top: I-81 at Harrison Street and Almond Street; Bottom: Over Erie Boulevard.

The 1938 Pioneer Homes project, the first in NYS, and second in the nation, designed by Syracuse Architects King & King, began construction of 678 family new housing units. The Syracuse Housing Authority (SHA) advertised this in 1939 as “A Complete New Neighborhood of Modern Homes, A Neighborhood of Safe and Quiet Living, A Neighborhood of Fresh Air, Sunshine, Lawns and Play Spaces.” Over the 1940s this new neighborhood was becoming home to 100s of Syracuse families. A little more than a decade later, in the mid 1950s, the city and Federal Highway agencies were deciding to demolish seven of the “new” buildings from the center of this neighborhood community for “Safe and Quiet Living,” to get ready to construct in the 60s, a 24 hour, high speed, commercial interstate highway. This decision was made to take advantage of Federal Highway funds for the Interstate system across the US, as a way to provide for the Urban Renewal of the former 15th Ward area at the center of the city. Planned in the post war growth and culture of the 50s, and built in the “Urban Renewal” mentality of the 60s, adding political and economic issues, this Interstate, like others many others, was deliberately planned to be built through the center of the city. Cities across the country found the new Interstate funding policies as a way to “renovate and modernize” their cities. Syracuse, Rochester, Albany & Buffalo were all “renovating“ with these same policies. The Design professions of Architecture, Engineering & Planning were all serving this development boom.

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The I-81 Viaduct Project. Top: Task Force meeting; Bottom: Traffic dispersal throughout Downtown Syracuse.

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Fast forward 50+ years to 2010, with 4+ generations of families having lived under the unhealthy environment of the elevated viaduct overhead, the highway needs to be rebuilt. After decades of “patching” the broken viaduct, it finally exceeded it’s “useful life” many times over. Impacted residents and City officials called for “the removal of the viaduct,” and to “take it down.” With the city unable to undertake this massive failing infrastructure system, NYS DOT began the “I-81 Viaduct Project” in 2013.

Project Area I-81 Viaduct Project Figure 1

BUT THE QUESTION REMAINED: WHO IS LEADING? WHO IS THE CLIENT? WHO IS IMPACTED? AND IN HOW MANY WAYS?

The “Lead Agency” for the I-81 Viaduct Project in Syracuse was the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT). This put the DOT in the drivers seat. In terms of a design project, they were charged with defining the “problem” to be solved, and how to solve it. The City of Rochester was the Lead Agency for the Inner Loop project, and they were able to set a broader range of community based objectives and goals. The Rochester inner city highway removal project was an Urban Design Development Project. The I-81 project in Syracuse was a 34+ mile regional interstate project to upgrade the failing Interstate highway service in Central NY. Of that 34+ mile project, about 3-4 miles runs through the center of the city, dividing downtown, the University Hill and Hospital areas, and residential neighborhoods. It was a highway project, which also ran through the center of Syracuse. When the DOT I-81 Project in Syracuse and Central NY began in 2013, everyone, including the DOT design team knew it was a highway project, and not an urban design project to upgrade the city. The DOT organized “Stakeholders Advisory Working Groups,” made up of 50+ local interest groups including local institutions, businesses, developers, architects and historic preservationists, the City School District, DPW and City Engineers, local municipalities, County planning officials and many more. This worked well to discuss and list the many goals and existing problems, and by meeting regularly, provided a good forum to share future possibilities. The AIACNY Chapter formed an “I-81 Task Force” advisory group to work with the DOT project team. We produced the “Syracuse I-81/Urban Design Study of the I-81 Project Area” In this first formal response to the DOT, we outlined both highway and urban design goals for creating a more livable community. This became the basis for the Community Grid Option, one of 19 options studies ever the past 10 years. To the credit of the DOT team, they were responsive to this urban agenda, but the project solutions, even today, were always in terms of “highway” solutions first. Even with grand landscaping, the DOT cannot provide comprehensive urban planning. The “project” was, and still is, the DOT “I-81 Project in Syracuse”.

Renderings produced by the AIACNY Chapter’s I-81 Task Force, showing existing conditions (first and third images) and proposed progress images (second and fourth images).

HOW CAN DESIGN PROFESSIONALS GET READY AND GET INVOLVED?

• Getting ready over many years • Providing technical and design assistance including visualization and design • Chapter supporting historic preservation, planning and urban design • Advocating for design excellence, demonstration and Design Award programs • Providing education on design, historic preservation and planning • Networking with chapters across the state • Bringing in State and National support for key design issues • Placing chapter members on planning boards • Supporting city and county planning boards • Promoting environmental & sustainable planning techniques • Meeting with as many different community groups as possible, to understand all the views pro and con • Responding and championing community cultural memory • Bringing your design & problem solving skills to as many interested groups as possible • Sharing the different views with other groups • Identifying and defining the “problem” and continuously updating the “problem statement.” • Identifying unique and valuable qualities and resources to be saved or emulated • Introducing sustainable methods into the planning process • Listening for the basic qualities people are asking for • Generating visualizations of what people are asking for; visualizing their ideas and wishes, and get their responses • Promoting making “Great Places to Live, Work &

Play” for all communities • Using your creative skills for visioning and testing many design possibilities, • Studying any idea, for where it may lead • Looking to the context for unique features to help generate solutions • Balancing formal meetings with informal gatherings, coffee and lunch sessions, sketching & charrettes to promote open engagement and creativity.

Removing the I-81 viaduct brought Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Chuck Schumer to Syracuse on June 15, 2021, to promote the Reconnecting Communities Act.

“If you see a job that needs to be done, and no one’s doing it….then it’s your job” Buckminster Fuller

This applies to making great communities and places to live. Beyond this, and because there is no overriding community planning agency leading this planning project, our Chapter and individual architects contributed their time and talents. The Central AIA Chapter has 20+ years of assisting the City and County with “Best Practices” design and planning policies. We are the “go to” source on planning, zoning and environmental issues. This plus decades of chapter architect’s service on the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board, reinforced promoting design excellence in community resources. And many chapter architects, including Dean Biancavilla, joined community and neighborhood groups to help articulate design goals sent to the DOT throughout the I-81 Project. Other advocacy groups we support include ReThink 81, Moving People Transportation Coalition (MPTC), Community 4 the Grid, Northside Up & Franklin Sq. Working Group, Syracuse Housing Authority (SHA) Southside Neighborhood & NYCLU, and more. The AIACNY I-81 Task Force has been influential in promoting and implementing the Community Grid Option, to redirect thru-traffic around the city center with upgraded commuter access, to remove the detrimental and unhealthy elevated viaduct from populated areas, and to promote more connection choices to commuter destinations. In this way, the Community Grid option will provide a calming and renewing environment for the adjacent properties, their shoppers & residents in the city. Still, it remains to be seen if the DOT will share with the city or other groups, unneeded and excess portions of their ROW form, the original 1960s viaduct construction. That request has been going on for nine years now, and still in discussion. As a postscript, and with the major social and economic impact of Covid-19 and “social justice” advocacy which occurred during I-81 project planning, the opportunity for extended community planning projects has been elevated to a national level through the “Reconnecting Communities Act.” These resources would help the DOT to assist communities in removing obstacles to mobility and opportunity. Community is dynamic, and engagement needs to be a way of life. l

Robert Haley is an Architect and teacher, native to Syracuse, a Graduate of Syracuse University School of Architecture, with a Masters in Architecture from the University of Oregon. He also taught Architecture at Syracuse University’s SOA, was Director of the London Program in Architecture, and taught an Architectural studio in the Colgate Art History Department. He was the Director of Design for two of Syracuse’s leading Architectural firms over their growth years, serves on the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board, and is Co-director of the Urban Design Center/Syracuse.

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AIA NEW YORK STATE INTRODUCES NEW TOOL TO STAY CONNECTED TO MEMBERS

AIA New York State is always looking for ways we can provide the greatest value to our members, leaders and community, and we know that in today’s virtual world that means making sure we stay connected to you. We have begun using a new tool, PropFuel, that will allow us to have more conversation-based communications with you through email. PropFuel emails will look similar to our regular emails except they will give us the ability to ask you questions and capture your response so that we can immediately point you to exactly what you need.

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If you have any questions, please reach out at aianys@aianys.org.

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