The former Dunk & Bright warehouse, located at the western edge of Armory Square, will become a focal point for experience-based learning and mission-based activities that will build natural connections between the daily life of the Syracuse University campus and the City of Syracuse.
Speaking at the March 23 annual meeting of the Metropolitan Development Association, SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor unveiled conceptual drawings of the warehouse renovation, which will be done by internationally renowned design firm, Gluckman Mayner Architects. The firm is headed by SU alumnus Richard Gluckman '70, G'71, who also serves on the SU School of Architecture's Board of Advisors. Gluckman, whose work includes the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and Berlin's Deutsche Guggenheim, will personally oversee the project.
Plans call for the warehouse to meet short-term needs for the School of Architecture, beginning in early 2006 during the renovation of Slocum Hall on the main University campus, as well as the long-term needs of Architecture's "UPSTATE: an institute for city and regional design." The warehouse will also serve the needs of the College of Visual and Performing Arts by providing studio space for the Communications Design and Advertising Design programs. In addition, the Goldring Arts Journalism Program, established recently in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, will have its downtown base of operations at the warehouse.
"For the students in these programs, a downtown presence, juxtaposed to the many businesses and cultural centers they are studying, affords a priceless educational edge," Cantor says. "But just as important is the creative and collaborative space this project will provide for the community as a whole."
Of the six floors of the facility scheduled for the first phase of renovation, one-fifth of the available space has been committed to public and community use.
Key components include:
Cantor also described plans to light the exterior of the warehouse building. The University is holding an invited-competition to select a winning concept for the project. It plans to "throw the switch" at a community-wide celebration at the end of summer 2005, when students return to campus.
