Through the generous support of Enterprise Community Partners an early stage affordable supportive housing development named Freedom’s Gate received a Pre-Development Design Grant. The grant brought together the project partners including the Syracuse Housing Authority, Center for Community Alternatives and Norstar with four architectural firms to explore design ideas at the early stages of development. The project’s goal is to create an affordable and supportive housing project with specific services for formerly incarcerated people and others with past criminal justice system involvement in Syracuse. It is also intended to be a model of community reintegration, an example of how people with past criminal justice involvement can live side-by-side within the larger community members. The project is based on a highly successful model, “Castle Gardens” developed by the Fortune Society, a respected reentry organization based in New York City. The purpose of the grant is to connect developers and architects with the end goal of providing quality affordable housing that strengthens the social and physical fabric of low- to mid-income communities and neighborhoods. The process, run by UPSTATE, resulted in the selection of Curtis+Ginsberg Architects of New York City being selected as the project architect. Ginsberg as well as So-IL, SWBR and ISA presented a diversity of design solutions in this pre-development stage helping the development team evaluate and compare options to make informed decisions; identify problems and challenges early on define the project Intent and priorities. Curtis + Ginsberg Architects SO-IL + HKK MASS LOGIC SWBR
Marc Norman 