Located in the northeast corner of Syracuse’s Near Westside, the Lincoln Building is scheduled to be the first completed project under the initiative funded by Syracuse University and New York State to revitalize the dilapidated neighborhood. Collaborating with Syracuse University School of Architecture, the Syracuse Center of Excellence, UPSTATE, and other local consultants and community members, Chicago-based Brininstool + Lynch redesigned the turn-of-the-century brick warehouse as a commercial and residential facility targeting a LEED Platinum rating.

Firm principal Brad Lynch described the four-story building, which will provide a live-work space for visiting artists and musicians, as a “pretty basic loft conversion” aside from the numerous green technologies it will integrate. A green roof system will allow up to 15,000 gallons of rainwater to be collected in an underground cistern, meeting nearly 25 percent of the building’s annual water demand and piping the excess to the site’s rain garden.

A green screen attached to the north, south, and west sides of the facade adds to the building’s energy efficiency with the shade its plantings will provide, but is more important as a symbol of the Near Westside’s future. “It’s more of a billboard for what’s happening with the building and the neighborhood in terms of technology,” said Lynch. “The most important thing is to revitalize the energy of the neighborhood by getting as many people in there as possible.”

Architect: Brininstool + Lynch
Client: Near Westside Initiative
Location: Syracuse, New York
Completion: July 2010