A3 — oji.com

Company Town

Site: Syracuse, NY

ARC307 Design Studio

Fall 2023

Instructor: Elizabeth Kammel

Downtown Syracuse’s urban fabric is defined as much by its absences as its built edges; surface lots, underutilized blocks, and buildings that sit without clear context. This project responds to that condition by enclosing the block surrounding the Niagara Mohawk Building, using the site perimeter as both boundary and organizing spine. The building wraps the block, carving out shared courtyards for residents and workers while establishing the Niagara Mohawk as the dominant presence at the center of the newly defined campus.

The housing accommodates both National Grid employees and general residents, and the architecture is organized around a clear spatial hierarchy that reflects this layered relationship to the institution at the campus core. Units are arranged along the perimeter, oriented inward toward the courtyards — and through them, toward the Niagara Mohawk Building itself. Visibility is directional and deliberate. The building knows where the center is, and so do its occupants.

At the unit scale, seven-foot concrete party walls organize plumbing, circulation, and it’s building services are consolidated within these thick wall zones, establishing a fixed structural rhythm that runs the length of the building. Furniture is both fixed and foldable, is integrated directly into the structure. The wall becomes a zone of activity absorbing the functional demands of daily life and leaving the living spaces on either side deliberately open. The project treats architectural hierarchy not as a formal exercise but as a way of making the relationship between residents, workers, and institution spatially legible.

1_Unit Composite Drawing

5_Ground Floor Plan

2_Render Perspective

6_Typical Unit Floor Plan

3_Render Perspective

7_Unrolled Section

4_Unit Plans

8_Unit Package + Environmental Analysis

9_Structure + Circulation + Program Diagrams