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 (sewer and water line expansions) along the corridor between the towns of Seneca and Hopewell, New York. 

A team-based approach was used to address a wide range of issues, beginning with a large-scale analysis of the entire Route 5 & 20 corridor between Geneva and Canandaigua.  The county-wide analysis evaluated and mapped various characteristics to develop a “vulnerability” model based on methods developed by Carl Steinitz of Harvard University.  This analysis provided a variety of insights into the positive and negative impacts of the potential sewer expansion, and gave county planners ideas about alternate forms of development.  Based on the vulnerability study, the studio prepared alternative development plans for one specific hamlet along this corridor and prepared a written set of suggested guidelines for the planning and management of future development within the hamlet.  During the course of the studio, a number of local planning officials and residents were able to attend the interim and final presentations and to offer their critique and feedback to the students’ work. 

Since the studio project’s completion, the work has heightened awareness of the value of planning and its potential for guiding change in local communities.  Three townships along the Route 5 & 20 corridor participated in a series of workshops conducted by SUNY ESF Landscape Architecture (sponsored by New York State’s Quality Communities program and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets) to further examine rural planning issues.  As a result, the three townships are each updating their comprehensive plans and hope to incorporate some of the most innovative new development guidelines in New York.