Onondaga Lake Parkway runs along the southeastern shore of Onondaga Lake, between the Village of Liverpool and Interstate Rt. 81. Designed and constructed during the 1920’s and 1930’s, the parkway is an important and well-know corridor that is subject to numerous pressures for contemporary use. Originally conceived as a scenic passenger car drive providing access to the lakeside features and landscape, the parkway today serves as a highly trafficked commuter route as well as entrance to Onondaga Lake Park and St. Marie Among the Iroquois. The Onondaga County Parks Department is interested in initiating a community dialogue and exploration of possible alternatives relative to the Onondaga Lake Parkway Landscape of the 21st century.
As a first step in this process, the Parks Department requested assistance from the SUNY ESF Faculty of Landscape Architecture and Center for Community Design Research to help facilitate the beginning of this community dialogue. During the fall semester landscape architecture students explored the design of the parkway as a service-learning project. Through a series of working sessions with stakeholders, on site observations and studio based work, the students investigated corridor conditions and regional influences, and considered possible elements and characteristics. Based on this information and understanding, the students prepared alternative design studies for review and discussion.
Community Work Sessions
During the first working session, held on October 11, 2005 students facilitated interactive discussion and mapping activities that allowed community members to share their insight on factors which impact the Parkway’s use as well as factors or conditions in the area that are influenced or impacted by the Parkway.
Community members identified positive features of the parkway corridor that could be used as resources, features or conditions that presented problems or concerns that should be addressed through design or management strategies, and potential opportunities that might be used to better advantage.
Community members also described their Vision for what they would like Onondaga Lake Parkway to be 10 years from now.
Vision and Goals
Based on the findings from the community working session, a series of goals were developed which served as the basis for all of the student designs.
Goal 1. Develop meaningful narratives that
expose the rich historical and cultural background.
Goal 2. Provide heightened sensory experience.
Goal 3. Be highly identifiable and accessible.
Goal 4. Facilitate regional continuity by creating connections to the
surrounding context.
Goal 5. Modify the landscape to create desirable environmental conditions.
Goal 6. Reestablish the recreational identity and use.
From the vision statements suggested by participants, three different vision statements were prepared which describe different futures for the parkway use and purpose. The students were able to choose one of these visions as the framework for their individual design studies.
Three alternative Vision Statements for consideration:
1. Onondaga Lake Parkway will be a scenic "drive within a park" for pedestrian, bicycle and passenger car traffic that provides safe access to cherished features and recreation attractions within its corridor. Its landscape design will ensure a memorable and relaxing connection and between gateway into the Village of Liverpool and the City of Syracuse, and it will be a model of environmentally responsible design and maintenance practices.
2. Onondaga Lake Parkway will be a scenic, slow passenger car route that provides safe access to recreation attractions within its corridor. Its landscape design will ensure a memorable connection between and gateway into the Village of Liverpool and the City of Syracuse and it will be a model of environmentally responsible design and maintenance practices.
3. Onondaga Lake Parkway will be a scenic passenger car route that serves as a convenient and attractive connection between and a gateway into the Village of Liverpool and the City of Syracuse. Its landscape will be a model of environmentally responsible design and maintenance practices.
It is the hope of the Onondaga County Parks Department that by seeing some of the possibilities explored by the students, county residents and other stakeholders will better appreciate both the opportunities and the challenges present in the parkway corridor and the need to begin to discuss how to best use and manage this valuable community resource.
