Marc Norman has been named the new director of UPSTATE: A Center for Design, Research, and Real Estate at the Syracuse University School of Architecture, effective July 1.
UPSTATE initiates and implements projects that focus on the importance of design and innovation in reconceiving the city of Syracuse, the upstate New York region and the post-industrial city. The center engages a coalition of academic, foundation and municipal partners involving architecture, infrastructure design, real estate and planning, and has worked on a number of projects in the city, including the Syracuse Connective Corridor, the Near Westside Master Plan and affordable green homes built in the Near Westside neighborhood—the result of an international design competition sponsored by UPSTATE: along with the Syracuse Center of Excellence and Home HeadQuarters, Inc.
“We are very fortunate to have someone with Marc’s experience and commitment to lead UPSTATE as a center for the new American city,” says Mark Robbins, dean of the School of Architecture. “I am confident he will continue to build upon the coalitions within the University, in the city of Syracuse and elsewhere, transforming urban communities through built projects, design research and scholarship.”
UPSTATE also engages students and faculty through studios offered at the School of Architecture and hosts public events on the critical role of design and innovation as a catalyst in the revitalization of cities, including “Formerly Urban: Projecting Rust Belt Futures,” a conference on the strategies for creating urbanity in weak-market cities.
“Since its inception, I have watched the reach and productivity of UPSTATE grow, so it is a privilege to be able to build off of the work of Mark Robbins, Julia Czerniak and others who have strengthened the role of good design and community development in the debate,” says Norman.
Norman is a vice president in the Community Development Finance Group at Deutsche Bank in New York City, where he provides loans and investments to organizations serving low-income communities throughout the United States. Before joining Deutsche Bank, Norman was a managing director at Duvernay + Brooks, a real estate development and finance consulting firm in New York City that specializes in helping governmental agencies and private developers execute mixed income and mixed use urban revitalization. Before moving to New York, he worked as a project manager for Skid Row Housing Trust, a community development corporation in Los Angeles. Norman serves on several boards, including CAMBA Housing Ventures and Citizens Union Foundation. He has familiarity with Syracuse, having taught real estate development in the School of Architecture and written for upstate publications. Norman holds a B.A. in political economics from University of California at Berkeley and an M.A. in urban planning from UCLA.
Norman follows Julia Czerniak, UPSTATE’s inaugural director and Syracuse Architecture professor.
