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Syracuse University’s Assistant Director of Campus Planning, Jennifer Bybee, presented recent revisions to SU’s Ostrom Avenue dormitory proposal to the Syracuse City Planning Commission Monday evening.

The university’s revised plans include significant changes to the proposal, including downsizing the number of bedrooms by 20% and reducing the overall square footage by 15%, Bybee said. The updated application also completely removed the university’s request to demolish 727 Comstock Ave., the 119-year-old vacant fraternity house city officials hope to designate as a local protected site.

During Monday’s meeting, Bybee said the dorm aims to modernize SU housing facilities and “remain competitive” with other top-tier research universities, as well as bring more second-year students off South Campus and closer to North Campus. It will take two years to construct, she said.

“It won’t be like the dorm that I lived in as a freshman and sophomore in college, which (had) many stalls and showers in one room at the end of the hallway,” Bybee said. “There was no air conditioning. The elevator was often on the fritz. That’s not acceptable anymore.”

SU officials consider the approval of the zoning application to be time imperative, as the university wants to complete the project near the start of an academic year, Bybee said. The SCPC, which votes on zoning applications before they reach the Syracuse City Common Council, did not take action on the proposal during its Monday meeting.

Following Bybee’s remarks, Daniel Lee, a principal architect at the Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architectural firm, talked through the characteristics of the dorm with the commissioners. He displayed a tentative rendering of the residence hall: a modern-style, four-to-six-story structure with several glass student lounges on its bottom floor.

Lee said several of the design choices were inspired by the homes on the opposite side of Ostrom Avenue’s 700 block, many of which are currently rental properties directed to students. SU is considering using brick for the project, so it will appear “complementary” to the homes across the street, Lee said. The glass lounges will also subtly mimic the porches of the adjacent residential properties.

“Development is intended to fit in with the scale and character of … these (surrounding) three-story residential buildings and the surrounding Syracuse residence halls,” Lee said.

The Ostrom Avenue residence hall will also be consistent with the heights of nearby SU facilities and residential homes, Lee said. Its highest point is three stories shorter than the nearby DellPlain Hall, which has nine floors. The wings closest to Ostrom will be four stories — consistent with the height of Shaw Hall and one floor higher than most of the homes across the street, he said.

During the presentation’s question-and-answer session, Bybee confirmed that no increase in class sizes or student enrollment will be associated with the addition of the new dorm. Rather, the residence hall will contribute to the university’s South Campus phaseout goals, as outlined in SU’s Strategic Housing Plan.

Commissioners then opened the floor to public comment, to which nobody responded. The SCPC also received three letters in opposition to the proposal — one from local principal architect Bob Haley, another from SU Associate Professor Lee Kennard and a third from Michael Stanton, the president of Southeast University Neighborhood Association.

Some of their concerns include the project’s scale, which they say is too large to fit in the immediate vicinity of a neighborhood that also accommodates single-family homes. Some letters suggested moving the projects to other campus lots. Kennard, who is also a resident of University Neighborhood, suggested SU move the construction to the parking area west of the JMA Wireless Dome.

“Accepting the University’s planning goal of bringing more undergraduates to the main campus, this project (is) still too big for this neighborhood street, testing the limitations of this site,” Haley’s letter reads. “The size of this 570 bed project, increasing student pedestrian & vehicular traffic on this presently busy vehicular traffic route, raises serious and basic safety questions.”

Bybee said the previous changes to the project were made in direct response to comments from city departments and community members. SU reduced the height of one of the dorm’s wings after receiving feedback from the Syracuse Rose Society, which was concerned that the original design would inhibit the growth of plants in the E.M. Mills Rose Garden. The university has since contracted a horticulturist to aid with the project, Bybee said.

The commission’s next opportunity to vote on the proposal will come during its Sept. 30 meeting, Steven Kulick, SCPC chairman, said. If approved, the project will require authorization from the Common Council.

Published on September 10, 2024 at 8:36 pm

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu