The Center facilitates projects for both studio settings and individual faculty-guided internships and graduate capstone work. Working on behalf of communities, agencies, and partnership organizations, the Center identifies available academic resources and coordinates the development of appropriate project strategies to meet specific requests. Studio participants work closely with community members and non-profit organizations to develop design-based solutions for a wide range of environments.
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Corcoran Environmental Education Center In the Fall of 2005 the third year undergraduate studio worked with members of the Corcoran High School community to develop plans for an environmental education center. |
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Butternut Creek Nature Trail In the fall of 2003, the third year undergraduate studio participated in a semester long community design process for the Butternut Creek Recreation and Nature Trail Project in the Town of DeWitt. |
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First English Lutheran Church In the spring of 2003 the third year undergraduate studio worked with the congregation of the First English Lutheran Church in Syracuse, New York to develop plans for an urban park adjacent to the church property. |
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Nottingham High School During the Spring 2002 semester 3rd and 5th year undergraduate students worked in collaboration with students and faculty from a local Syracuse high school to develop a design strategy for an existing courtyard space at the school. |
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Habitat
for Humanity
In
2002, Habitat for Humanity built five new houses on Seymour Street in
Syracuse, New York. The
CCDR is developing a pilot education program to assist the Habitat for
Humanity homeowners and other urban homeowners in learning the basics of
site design, plant material installation and maintenance, and gardening. |
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The Willow Studio In search of a constructive alternative for site reclamation and revitalization, this graduate design studio aimed to restore the working practices of two sties in central New York, not only as a way of shaping their physical form but also of making new connections between site and community. |
| Thematic Studios | |
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Aquinnah Town Center In the Spring of 2006, a site design studio of second year graduate students and fifth year undergraduates participated in a community design workshop to create alternatives for a town center in the town of Aquinnah, Massachusetts. |
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Fayetteville Canal Landing Park In Spring 2006, community members from the Village of Fayetteville and landscape architecture students from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry worked together to develop design ideas for a Canal Landing Park located in the historic center of the village. |
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Skaneateles Middle School The CCDR and SUNY ESF Thematic Site Design Studio collaborated with the Skaneateles Middle School on a service learning project focused on the development of a program and alternative conceptual design studies for the enclosed courtyard at the Skaneateles Middle School. This cooperative project involved the teachers, administration, and students of the Skaneateles Middle School and fifth year undergraduate and second year graduate students of ESF's Landscape Architecture program. |
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Onondaga Lake Parkway Onondaga Lake Parkway runs along the southeast shore of Onondaga Lake, between the Village of Liverpool and Interstate-81. Originally conceived as a scenic drive providing access to the lakeside landscape, today it serves as a highly trafficked commuter route and entrance to the lake park and St. Marie Among the Iroquois. The Onondaga County Parks Department took interest in initiating a community dialogue to explore alternatives; based on information gathered through a series of working sessions, the CCDR and students prepared alternative design studies for review and discussion. |
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Binghamton Riverfront District Master Plan This thematic studio was a direct outcome of the Binghamton Vision Planning Process. The City of Binghamton's plan to build a river walk along the Chenango River, which runs along the length of the North Side Neighborhood, provided the opportunity to explore and express the community's vision to revitalize an existing retail center in the heart of the neighborhood. |
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Watertown Vision Planning Process The City of Watertown chose to initiate their Local waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP) by involving the community in a participatory process of vision planning. The process was designed and facilitated by SUNY ESF Planning and Landscape Architecture students under the guidance of faculty and the Center for Community Design Research. |
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Lexington Park The Advanced Site Design studio worked with members of Syracuse's Near Eastside to develop several design strategies for Lexington Park. The redevelopment of this urban park is seen as an important first step in revitalization and reinvestment in the larger neighborhood. |
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Binghamton North Side Vision Planning In the winter of 2001 – 2002, residents of the North Side neighborhood in Binghamton began to consider ways to enhance the peace, wholeness, harmony, and prosperity of their community. In the Spring of 2002 the Communities of Shalom partnered with SUNY ESF and Cornell University to conduct a series of workshops to develop a cohesive plan for the North Side Neighborhood. |
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Waterfront
Initiatives The
focus of this project was to facilitate community involvement in a
visioning process that celebrates the spirit of the place while
simultaneously building local leadership and support for both the
process and the resulting vision plan. The
planning process was designed to coordinate with state agencies in the
cooperative development of implementation strategies that supported the
communities’ visions. |
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Ontario County Rural Hamlet Study The primary goal of this graduate design studio was to provide assistance to Ontario County, New York in assessing and modeling the potential impacts of major infrastructure improvements along the corridor between the towns of Seneca and Hopewell, New York. |
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Northside Neighborhood Project This Urban Design Studio examined both the tangible and intangible factors that constitute the greater Northside Neighborhood in Syracuse, New York with the primary aim of developing a design strategy to inspire current planning efforts and to support future neighborhood development. |
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Eastwood Neighborhood Study Assisting a community to address change was the focus of the fifth-year, spring semester Urban Design Studio. The Eastwood Neighborhood, located on the eastern boundary of Syracuse, NY, has been challenged with a changing population base, and an increase of development types that threaten its historic and pedestrian character. |
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Southwest
Community Study The
purpose of this studio project was to discover how the physical
infrastructure of the city might be used to help accomplish the
economic, social, and aesthetic goals of the “Tomorrow’s
Neighborhoods Today” (TNT) planning sector.
More specifically, the intent was to use design methods as vehicles
for helping citizens envision, organize, and sort ideas that may become
the community-planning concepts that are shared, championed, and
eventually funded. |
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Milton Avenue Design Study In the fall and winter of 2002-2003, Solvay community members participated in the creation of a Vision Plan with the assistance of the SUNY ESF Center for Community Design Research. Adopted by the Village Board, the Vision Plan serves as a guide for community planning decisions and as the foundation for other initiatives. This capstone project is the first action strategy accomplished under the Village Vision Plan. |
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Urban Wetland Park This capstone project sought to integrate science, design, and education in the creation of an urban wetland park at an existing detention basin along Harbor Brook, a polluting tributary of Onondaga Lake in west Syracuse, NY. The objectives of this design study were to improve water quality with bioengineering, reveal hydrological processes, and engage ecological aesthetics. |
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Landscape
Narratives in Post-Industrial Communities
This
study explored the use of landscape narratives as a tool for
facilitating community participatory design in a small post-industrial
community in southeastern Ohio. The goal of the project was to
synthesize narrative practices with proven participatory design and
planning methods in order to generate several community design
alternatives that capture and channel the vitality of local heritage. |
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Community Capacity-Building Benefits This doctoral research study investigated the community capacity-building benefits of participatory community design and planning (PCDP) and used the results to propose a set of general and reliable indicators of community capacity. This type of community capacity building depends on active and informed citizens who are skilled at and participate in decision-making processes and on community leaders who are practiced and comfortable with such shared decision-making. |
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Human Scale and the Suburban Community This Masters thesis investigated the value of human scale connections to those who live in conventional suburbs, if such connections could be retrofitted within an existing structure, and if so, how. The thesis study approach also explored the potential for utilizing community participation processes in the design and planning of suburban environments. |
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Public Participation in Restoration Ecology This research explored multi-disciplinary perspectives in the emerging field of restoration ecology by analyzing firsthand accounts told by experienced restoration ecologists about their experiences and examining the social challenges they encountered. Through these stories, the researcher hoped to identify and evaluate different models of “authorship” for restoration narratives. |
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Sodus Point Vision Planning In 2006 the Village of Sodus Point, with funding obtained by the Wayne County Planning Department, contacted the CCDR for assistance in developing a vision plan to define and guide the village's future. In a series of three workshops to date, and one more to be held in January 2007, residents, business owners, and village leaders shared information about the village's assets and opportunities and discussed underutilized resources and desired changes |
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Red Creek Vision Planning In 2004 the Village of Red Creek, with funding obtained by the Red Creek Revitalization Committee, contacted the CCDR for assistance in developing a vision plan to define and guide the village's future. In a series of four workshops held between the fall of 2004 and spring 2005, residents, business owners, and village leaders shared information about the village's assets and opportunities and discussed underutilized resources and desired changes |
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Lexington Park Master Plan Continuing the work done by the Advanced Site Design Studio, the CCDR worked throughout the summer of 2003 to develop a master plan design for Lexington Park, an urban park located in the heart of Syracuse's Near Eastside neighborhood. The redevelopment of this urban park is seen as an important first step in revitalization and reinvestment in the larger neighborhood. |
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Solvay Vision Planning In January of 2001 the Village of Solvay, a small village on the northwestern edge of the city of Syracuse, approached the Center for Community Design Research (CCDR) requesting assistance in formulating a master plan. A bootstrapping session was held in April 2002 for a small group of community leaders from Solvay to freely brainstorm with experienced professionals from the CCDR about ways to identify and address issues and concerns facing their community. |
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Dolgeville Vision Planning The Village of Dolgeville identified a need for action in response to the loss of local industry and businesses. During the summer of 1999, Cheryl Doble and Sue Thering worked with community members to develop a series of workshops that addressed issues facing the village and identified opportunities on which the village could build and articulate a desired future. |
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The Center for Community Design Research Department of Landscape Architecture SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry One Forestry Drive Syracuse, NY 13210 - 4721 ccdr@esf.edu |
SUNY Environmental Science & Forestry Department of Landscape Architecture CCDR (home) contact: ccdr@esf.edu
