Upstate Modern MAKING METROPOLITAN AMERICA ALONG THE ERIE CANAL
Upstate Modern is a series of courses and public programs at Syracuse University examining the urban history of Upstate New York through transdisciplinary research that draws on archives, buildings, landscapes, and communities.
Living
Attica: The Unlearnt Lessons of the 1971 Revolt
By Andres Jaime. “The rebels armed in advance with knives, spears, clubs, swords, steel and metal pipes, pickaxes, shovels, straight razors, wire bolos and baseball bats with extended spikes took… control of A, B, D and E Blocks within twenty minutes. Then the rebels attacked the commissary, metal shops, industrial buildings and set fires to […]
Rome Resurrected
By Eric LeBlanc. Rome rebuilt 18th century Fort Stanwix as part of an urban renewal scheme, but the project failed to stimulate a post-industrial economy based on tourism. Fort Stanwix National Monument stands today as a unique example of urban renewal in an Upstate New York town whose economy was in a clear state of […]
Demolishing Buffalo’s Larkin Building
By Joshua Rubbelke. From its construction in 1906 through its demolition in 1950 to its potential reconstruction, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building epitomizes Buffalo’s changing economy. In the early 1900’s, industrial cities were booming with productivity and populations were at an all-time high. Cities like Detroit, Syracuse, and Buffalo were growing due to the amount […]
Carousel’s Destiny: Syracuse and its Megamall
By Alex Sabo. Destiny USA, once known as the Carousel Center, is one of the staples of Syracuse. Since its opening in 1990, Destiny has become the sixth largest mall in the world. It has followed the Mall of America model of expanding beyond retail and incorporating entertainment, recreation facilities, and restaurants into the mix. […]
Sergei Grimm’s Post-War Planning
By Nate Heffron. The landscape of American metropolises was undergoing profound changes during the mid-20th century. Throughout this period—especially following World War II—urban planners were at the fore of projects that altered cities in ways that have lasted until this day. Certain planners were ascending as pioneers in the trends of suburbanization, highway construction, urban […]
The 15th Ward: A History in the Shadows
By Leandro Cortez. Construction of Interstate 81 through Syracuse was the final component in a series of urban renewal projects that eradicated the Jewish and African-American 15th Ward. The 15th Ward, a name that gained notoriety when Syracuse was divided into distinct neighborhoods for governmental representation. However, by the 1920’s the number of wards had […]
Preservation and Parking at Hanover Square
By Ran Yue. The project traces the postwar development of Hanover Square in Syracuse to show how modernizing downtown included pedestrian zones and historic preservation districts alongside parking structures and automotive infrastructure. The location of Hanover Square was beneficial to its development. In 1804 the Eire Canal was curved out through the community, started the […]
PEACE Inc.; forty five years in war against poverty
By Victoria Gueglio. Founded in 1968, in Onondaga County, PEACE, Inc. (People’s Equal Action and Community Effort, Inc.) is a local Community Action Agency (C.A.A) which main purpose is to fight poverty. Their agenda is to administer programs like home aides, housing services, legal services and Head Start, to assist poor people. Moreover, “to stimulate […]
West Street Severing The West Side
By Nathan Aleskovsky. How Syracuse city planning perpetuated the economic and urban decline of Syracuse’s Near West Side through the expansion of West Street. In order to embrace the automobile culture and suburbanization, the 1965 Comprehensive Plan for the City of Syracuse included plans to redevelop areas of the city, which would require the relocation […]
