Adjaye Associates, SHoP Architects and Snøhetta have been shortlisted for a new National Veterans Resource Complex (NVRC) at Syracuse University. The three practices, all of which were among seven recently shortlisted to design the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago, were selected over 28 considered firms by a group of faculty, staff, students and design professionals, including Martha Thorne.
“The three finalist firms and their teams are outstanding,” says Thorne. “I have no doubt they will propose ideas that go beyond traditional academic buildings and make the NVRC a pioneering facility that will contribute to the University, as well as the broader community.”
Part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's Upstate Revitalization Initiative, the NVRC will be a multi-use facility serving the University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF). It will house spaces for vocational and educational programs, such as classrooms, gallery space, and a conference center with 1000-seat auditorium.
“Syracuse University’s ambition to make the NVRC a combined educational and community center, as well as a national hub for America’s 22.8 million veterans and their families, resonates deeply with my own commitment to architecture that empowers communities and has global resonance,” says David Adjaye, principal at Adjaye Associates. “This is also an opportunity to enhance the context and future vision for the surrounding area—setting the highest precedent for subsequent development.”
"The NVRC at Syracuse University will occupy a special place in the life of the city, the campus and the community of veterans nationwide it is intended to serve," says SHoP principal William Sharples. "Everyone at SHoP is honored to be a part of this process."
Craig Dykers, founding partner of Snøhetta, says: “The poet RJ Heller once wrote, ‘In the aftermath we are because they were.’ Courage is contagious, and being a part of this process at Syracuse to benefit our veterans in a groundbreaking new facility is exciting and humbling for all of us at Snøhetta. This is more than a handshake: we are doing something revolutionary for those whose origins are from the same stuff.”
The finalists will now be expected to make site visits and envision proposals by April. A winning practice will be announced in May.
News via Syracuse University
