Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s vision to integrate Syracuse University and downtown Syracuse is about to get bigger – three miles bigger.

Cantor revealed plans Monday to create a three-mile-long pedestrian pathway and accompanying public shuttle bus circuit that will further merge life on the SU hill with downtown Syracuse.

‘(Cantor has) really been promoting this agenda that we need to be better integrated with the community,’ said Charles Merrihew, assistant vice president for leadership gifts and chancellor’s initiatives. ‘It is also promoting the concept of breaking down barriers.’

The proposed walkway will connect the university to the East Genesee Street area and will connect many of downtown’s art institutions, entertainment venues and public spaces, such as Syracuse Stage, the Everson Museum of Art and the Landmark Theatre.

‘It will really join together all of the cultural treasures in this area,’ said Nicci Brown, assistant vice president of communications.

The project is currently in preliminary stages and the next step is a design competition to be held in the summer, when a team of designers, landscapers and architects tour the site and begin conceptualizing ideas for the corridor. Afterwards, the various ideas will be presented to the community, which will then decide on the final plan.

‘This will be a public process,’ Brown said. ‘(It will be) very open in terms of what is conveyed to (the designers).’

Potential details of the corridor include artwork adorning the corridor, historical aspects throughout, a bike path, additional bus routes through the area, possible wireless Internet access and a decorative lighting scheme.

‘We want it to be something visible to know you are on this pathway,’ Merrihew said. ‘The theme might change depending on what region of the city you are in.’

Merrihew said the project is preliminary in that no one is sure exactly what it is going to look like yet.

‘If you let your imagination run a little bit … that’s the energy Cantor is looking for around this project,’ Merrihew said.

Funding for the project is currently slated to come from a $1 million corporate sponsor from the Niagara Mohawk electric company and from an allocation in the 2005 Federal Highway Reauthorization Bill passed March 9 by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The $3.5 million allocation was passed due to the support of Republican Congressman James Walsh.

‘We’ve got the money; it’s going to happen,’ Brown said. ‘The ball is already rolling.’

Daniel Gage, communications director for Walsh, said with Cantor’s recent downtown property acquisitions and her vision to increase the university presence downtown, the corridor is ‘the perfect marriage of the two.’

Gage said Walsh decided to support this project because it was a priority of many organizations in the region, such as the East Genesee Regents Association.

‘There were a lot of groups on the same page,’ Gage said. ‘So that helped.’

Gage also said this project is a way to showcase the variety of downtown attractions while fostering a new exchange of ideas.

‘There’s a symbolic importance to this project,’ Gage said.

Merrihew said the additional bus routes could take effect as soon as January when the School of Architecture is set to move to its new downtown location.

‘Implementation (for the rest of the corridor) depends on how elaborate the plans are,’ Merrihew said.

Brown said the corridor is going to be a beautified walkway in conjunction with additional public transportation.

‘The corridor is more of a destination, rather than a thoroughfare,’ Brown said.

 

Published on March 20, 2005 at 12:00 pm