New Ronald McDonald House delayed (Syracuse, Limestone: fit in, credit, houses)

[bellafinzi]

New Ronald McDonald House delayed due to money
They blame the economy and rising construction costs, but also say a drawn-out battle with the historic preservation committee over their design plan didn't help.
“Certainly the delay in the approval process which was significant ended us right in the onset of this downturn in the economy, so that alone really created a lack of ability to get out and get those major gifts in the timeline we had set forth,” Trunfio says.
New Ronald McDonald House delayed due to money - NewsChannel 9 WSYR




Do people in Syracuse have any sense of class or style? I saw the proposed building...it was beautiful and impressive! For once a proposed building didn't "fit in" with the dreary look of the surrounding neighborhood in the city and of course city residents fight it. So backwards.....

Sometimes I truly wonder if folks in Syracuse are in love with cultivating the ugly.

[acknight]

It was a decent building design. Which they didn't bother to show anybody until a long ways into the process.

Meanwhile, just three doors down from the site, there's a good example of taking an existing historic structure and adding onto it cost-effectively and appropriately - the building which houses Planned Parenthood.

Also meanwhile, there is no shortage of actually vacant lots of the size they desired within a few blocks of their site, which didn't have structures already on them.

They had architects volunteer their time to design something that fit their needs with the historic structure, and who were rebuked. It was an exceptionally bullheaded development plan in an area with many examples of historic building reuse and expansion - the Genesee Grande/Mayflower Apts building, etc.

[phaelon56]

Yes.... the delay was not caused by opposition to the project itself. It was - as has been pointed out already - a matter of resistance to tearing down a lovely and usable historic structure that was on that site. The building that was there did not have historical "significance" per se but there were and are other sites available within a block or two of that spot which could just as easily have been developed.

Why tear down a lovely old building that adds character to a neighborhood and is currently utilized when plenty of alternatives are available? I ask this question not to stire flames but because I am curious.

[bellafinzi]

Maybe it was partially the media's fault.

In most communities, the media actually informs the public so that people in the community can make informed decisions.

In Syracuse, the media is all about catchy headlines and what will attract the most advertising revenue.

Who cares about facts, logical thinking or truth...right? When you can have US vs. THEM stories.....human interest articles/stories and twisted news reporting so that people never can understand the bigger picture.

[Jeromeville]

The building they tore down was very nice.

Unfortunately, it was not really "historic" in any sense and had major repair needs.

I don't begrudge the Ronald McDonald House for wanting a new building. However I do find it disingenuous for them to blame the preservationists for their current financial troubles.

[phaelon56]

If I recall correctly they tried to tear down the house that is still the front section of the current and original Ronald McDonald House but were unsuccessful in doping so and caved in to the demands that they utilize it as part of the new building that sits behind it and is attached to it. It was many years ago and I'm not positive but believe that's what happened.

I agree that the building that was not historic in terms of having a significant place in local history but it's one of a handful of buildings in that area that still served as a visual touchstone for the nature of what that street once was - it's unfortunate that they couldn't find a way to work with that structure.

Sometimes there's little that can be done. The Oliver Teall house - once home to a prominent local individual who was regarded as one of the founding fathers of Syracuse (Teall Ave was named after him) - used to sit at the corner of South Beech and Erie Blvd where there is now a credit union. It was a wood frame home that lacked a truly unique architectural style but efforts by preservationists failed to save it. There was less awareness then (I think it was the late 1970's / early 1980's) of the need to consider the significance of a structure beyond its architecture.

Oliver Teall House
105 S. Beech St.
Syracuse, NY 13210
Architect: Unknown
Style: Not listed
Period: 1800-1824
Ownership: Private
Historic Significance: Association with Oliver Teall (1788-1857), considered one of Syracuse's founding fathers. Teall is linked with relative Rueben Bangs (1788-1872) throughout most of his life. The two owned portions of the same military lots in Syracuse, and in 1819 started a business producing lime used in making cement for the face works, locks, and arches of the Erie Canal. The limestone was mined on Dry Hill (sometimes by Aaron C. Hoar) and was burned in kilns to convert it to a powder, then shoveled from the bottom of the kilns, and transferred to a warehouse where it was stored. The kilns were often located on the extensions near the locks. Teall and Bangs had a contract for the construction of a portion of the Canal about a mile west of the Limestone Creek aqueduct. In 1828, they were joined by Seymour Pratt. Pratt was replaced by Ed Gaynor at which point the company was named Bangs and Gaynor Lime and Plaster Works. By 1830, the men had constructed a dry-dock and boat yard on the west side of the feeder extension to allow boats to dock for repairs. Teall later became the Canal's superintendent. At one point he was awarded a 35-year monopolistic franchise to supply water to Syracuse, but he failed to take advantage of this opportunity. When Teall died in 1857, he left behind some land in California, the ownership of which was later disputed and that became the center of a famous U.S. Supreme Court decision.

[urbanplanner]

I saw the designs and they were very impressive. I am a firm supporter of historic preservaiton, but there comes a times when necessity takes presidence and all sides must give a little. The arrival of the Galiszno Childrens Hospital makes it imperative for this new Ronald McDonald House to be built. More to the point, the Historic Preservation Board and others are playing politics with the lives of children with cancer and their families.