Syracuse University announces ‘All-Star’ team selected to design the headquarters campus for the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems

Syracuse University announces ‘All-Star’ team selected to design the headquarters campus for the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy SystemsJune 14, 2005Sara Millersemortim@syr.edu

Syracuse University announced today that the local architectural firm Ashley McGraw Architects has been selected to lead a prestigious team in designing the headquarters campus of the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems.

The team-recommended by a 13-member selection committee representing a broad array of interests both within Syracuse University and among partner institutions and firms-includes individuals from more than a dozen different firms, including at least nine in New York state and at least six located specifically in Central New York. Ashley McGraw Architects, of Syracuse, will serve as executive architect, a role that includes overall leadership of the design team. Among the firms that will lend their expertise to the project:

• Toshiko Mori Architect of New York City, will be the design architect;
• Arup of New York City will lead the design of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural systems;
• Stearns & Wheler of Cazenovia will lead civil engineering design;
• Hargreaves Associates of New York City will lead landscape architecture;
• C&S Engineers of Syracuse will be responsible for commissioning of the building; and
• two firms in Central New York-yet to be named-will address geotechnical engineering and environmental engineering.

Among the special consultants participating on the project team:

• Peterson Engineering of Syracuse will address telecommunications infrastructure and elevators;
• P. Richard Rittlemann of Pittsburgh will participate in planning laboratory spaces;
• Matthias Schuler of Transsolar Energietechnick in Stuttgart, Germany, will provide assistance concerning modeling of the indoor climate of the building;
• John Boecker of Ebensburg, Pa., will review project plans for compliance with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System; and
• a consultant to be named will provide guidance concerning security issues.

“This is an ‘All-Star’ team for a wonderful project, which holds enormous potential for the region,” says Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University. “We envision that the Syracuse CoE campus will become a hotbed for innovation that will attract students, faculty and professionals from partner firms and institutions. Through collaborative research and development projects, partners will plant the seeds of their ideas and evaluate how they perform in a ‘real-world’ building. Ideas that take root and grow will generate benefits for the region for generations to come.”

“The Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems will make Central New York a worldwide leader in the development of environmental and energy technologies,” says Gov. George E. Pataki. “I congratulate everyone involved for moving so quickly to select a design team for the new headquarters for the Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems. We’re proud that our Syracuse Center of Excellence will be a world-class facility that will serve as a focal point for the development of new technologies that will help the region’s economy and provide the impetus to create thousands of new high-tech job opportunities for New Yorkers.”

“The announcement today is another major step forward for the Syracuse CoE,” says Edward A. Bogucz, the center’s executive director. “We already have dozens of projects underway in facilities at our partner institutions and firms. Now, we look forward to working with this outstanding design team to develop plans for a headquarters complex that will expand our capabilities relating to studies of indoor air quality, human performance and renewable energy.”

“I have been an architect for many years and worked on a number of important projects, such as the Court House here in Syracuse, but to have the privilege to work on the new Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems is truly an awe-inspiring privilege for me and for the Ashley McGraw team,” says David Ashley, partner of Ashley McGraw Architects. “We firmly believe in the basic principles this project will promote, which is to enhance the environmental quality and intelligent energy use of our environment.” Ashley was the first LEED-accredited professional in Central New York, and all of the firm’s architects and designers have earned LEED certification.

“I welcome the news that Syracuse University has taken the next step in the implementation of the Center of Excellence project: the selection of a design team,” says Mayor Matthew Driscoll. “More than any other project on our table, the Center of Excellence will propel the City of Syracuse into the 21st century and assist in the continued growth that we have already seen in our central business district and elsewhere, particularly in the high-tech sector. I am excited that several of the design professionals are Syracuse firms. This fact recognizes the quality of talent in Syracuse.”

“The MDA wants to congratulate the design team, and we are particularlypleased that it is led by a local firm with a large amount of local participation,” says Irwin L. Davis, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York. “This is appropriate because the consultants for our Vision 2010 and Essential New York Initiative projects identified ‘environmental building systems’ as one of the true strengths of the region. The talent to design and engineer this building is resident in the community and it is truly world class.”

The headquarters campus will be located in downtown Syracuse on a three-acre site at the corner of Washington and Almond streets. In the early 1900s, the site was the location of the L.C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter Co. factory; most recently it was known as the Midtown Plaza commercial complex. The Midtown Plaza building was demolished in 1999 as one of the first projects to receive funding under the State’s Environmental Restoration (Brownfields) program.

The headquarters is expected to be about 60,000 square feet, with 36,000 square feet of office and public space and 24,000 square feet of laboratory space. The project includes a unique laboratory, funded by the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) for conducting studies of the response of human subjects to “total” indoor environmental quality (TIEQ), including temperature, humidity, air quality, lighting and sound.

Syracuse CoE administrators envision that the headquarters complex will include a pioneering “green” building that achieves the highest “Platinum” rating in the “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System” established by the U.S. Green Building Council. “The notion is to make the building and site a living laboratory for new strategies as they become available in the future,” Ashley says. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall, and some portions of the building are scheduled to open in fall 2006. The building is expected to be completed by spring 2007.

The Syracuse CoE was established by Gov. Pataki in June 2002 to create jobs and foster investment in the state as part of the Empire State High-Tech Corridor, and to spur economic growth in the Central New York region. The CoE, a federation led by Syracuse University, includes collaborative research, development, education and economic development programs that involve 12 academic and research institutions and more than 60 corporate firms and organizations. The headquarters site was dedicated by Gov. Pataki, Chancellor Cantor and local elected officials and dignitaries on June 6.