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MASTER PLANNING AND URBAN DESIGN

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Veterans Park
High School Multi Purpose
Lake Placid Band Shell Park
Staten Island 911 Memorial
Ellis Roof Garden
Riverside Park and Pump House

PARKS & RECREATION EXPERIENCE

Veteran's Park

Schenectady High School

Multi-Purpose Field

Lake Placid Band Shell Park

FEATURED PROJECTS:Veteran’s Park | Schenectady, New YorkSchenectady High School Multi-Purpose Field | Schenectady, New YorkLake Placid Band Shell Park | Lake Placid, New YorkThe Staten Island September 11 Memorial | Staten Island, New YorkEllis Rehabilitation Center Roof Garden | Schenectady, New YorkRiverside Park Waterfront and Pump House | Schenectady, New YorkPoint Park in Old Forge Town Center | Town of Webb, New YorkUpstate New York 9/11 Memorial | Schenectady, New YorkLippman Park Master Plan | Wawarsing, New YorkCentral Park Ballfields / Park 4 Play | Schenectady, New YorkHudson Crossing | Schuylerville, New YorkSchenectady High School Courtyard Succession GardenADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE:Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) Concept Plan | Adirondack ParkByron Park | Indian Lake, New YorkWaterfront Park Plan | Canajoharie, New YorkCentral Park Rose Garden and Gateway |Schenectady, New YorkFloyd Ladd Park and Schenectady Visitor Center | Schenectady, New YorkLake Placid Parks Project | Lake Placid, New YorkLiberty Park | Schenectady, New YorkLittle Falls Public Library | Little Falls, New YorkMaalwyck Park | Glenville, New YorkMadison Avenue Park | Albany, New YorkMont Pleasant Athletic Complex | Schenectady, New YorkNatural History Museum of the Adirondacks | Tupper Lake, New YorkThe Preserve at North Creek Recreation Center North Creek, New YorkSt. Lawrence River Visitor and Community Center | Ogdensburg, New YorkPulaski Park | Schenectady, New YorkRotary Park | Amsterdam, New YorkArts Building Courtyard at Union College | Schenectady, New YorkVale Park Gateway and Pavilion | Schenectady, New York

The Staten Island

September 11 Memorial

Ellis Residential &

Rehabilitation Center Roof Garden

Riverside Park Waterfront &

Pump House

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Point Park Old Forge
Upstate 911 Memorial
Lippman Park
Central Park Ball Fields
Hudson Crossing
High School Courtyard

PARKS & RECREATION EXPERIENCE

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Veteran’s Park

Schenectady, New York

As part of a master plan to accentuate local urban character and provide the setting of a massive redevelopment effort in downtown Schenectady, Synthesis designed a completely new streetscape and beautification plan for Veteran’s Park on State Street. The entrance into the park was designed to increase pedestrian safety by reconfiguring the public right-of-way. Continuous rows of large-scale street trees define the pedestrian area and provide a distinctive entry into the park. An ornamental fence outlining the area improves the park aesthetics.

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Schenectady High School

Mutli-Purpose Field

Schenectady City School District

Synthesis designed a state of the art multi-purpose athletic field as part of the 2009 Capital Project for Schenectady High School. As typical with many urban campuses, Schenectady High School has limited athletic fields. Previously, the campus had two practice fields and one ‘game’ field. To maintain the ‘game’ field in playable condition, the school only utilized the field for varsity games, which put tremendous pressure on the practice fields. Typically, multiple sports share the practice fields creating an overcrowded and unsafe environment for the student athletes.The durability and all weather nature of the multi-purpose synthetic field relieves the pressure on the practice fields by enabling all day year round usage. The field can be utilized throughout the day for gym classes and into the night for practice or team competition. In addition, the district will be able to generate revenue from the field by renting the facility to surrounding community based athletic clubs.The new facility also includes a resurfaced track and new infield track event zones. Synthesis designed the track improvements to reduce former cross slopes that exceeded regulation limits, thereby making the track safer and better suited for runners. New fencing will also enhance the security and aesthetics of the field. The project also includes new construction of bathroom facilities with adjoining maintenance and field storage bays.

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Band Shell Park Plan

Lake Placid Band Shell Park

Lake Placid, New York

Band Shell Park is an important open space within the Village Commercial Core of Lake Placid, New York, a major resort village in the Adirondack Mountains. The park is centrally located within the active village and adjacent to Mirror Lake and Main Street. The plan identifies a series of curved stonewalls which are terraced into the sloping hillside, linked together with a series of steps and ramps leading directly to Mirror Lake and the band shell. Each terrace would be used as viewing or sitting areas for the various events that occur throughout the summer at the band shell. Various types of vines, ground cover, small shrubs and trees were recommended as a way of linking the improvements to the existing landscape. The park is accessible, which was a special challenge due to the elevation differences between Main Street and the Lake.

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The Staten Island September 11 Memorial Staten Island, New York

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Facing one another across New York Harbor at the confluence of the Hudson and East Rivers, Staten Island and Manhattan have had over the years a somewhat contenious relationship. All that was to change on September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks that on that day took thousands of lives, including the lives of 267 Staten Islanders, united New Yorkers as one to mourn and to help one another in a vast out pouring of kindness and generosity. This design memorializes the lives of each of those 267 individuals and celebrates the spirit of Staten Islanders, who, despite their own loss and pain, reached out to others in countless ways.Our design reaches out across the water toward our neighbors on lower Manhattan, enframing the view of the skyline with a series of sculptural arched walls that, taken together, form an abstracted silhouette of the former skyline and lead the visitor to a waterside plaza and the contemporary view of Manhattan. Linked to the Plaza on its western side is a Memorial Garden of glass towers, constructed at a human scale. Each of the towers memorializes each individual Staten Islanders who were lost on September 11.The towers are lit internally, glowing as a perpetual candlelight vigil at the water’s edge. Within the base of each tower are smooth, dark river stones — Hope Stones. A visitor may reach into the base and select a stone. The stone acquires meaning only through the individual act of choosing and removing it from its bed, thereby being transformed to become a symbol, embued with meaning by its possessor.

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Ellis Residential & Rehabilitation

Center Roof Garden

Schenectady, New York

As part of the Ellis Residential and Rehabilitation Center Project, Synthesis was asked to design a roof garden that would serve residents and their families. This project was made possible by a generous donation from a former resident’s family. To maximize the potential of the space, the project was handled as a design/build project. Synthesis designed the garden, coordinated with the hospital to order all of the materials and helped oversee construction, which was done by Youth Build Schenectady, a 12-month program sponsored by Northeast Parent & Child Society that helps young adults ages 18-24 from Schenectady County earn a GED while getting paid to build affordable housing and assisting non-profit organizations in constructing worthy projects. The intent of the design was to create a contemporary style garden that would incorporate garden plants, fragrances and colors reminiscent of one’s own garden. As part of the design, two larger planters are designed for accessible gardening by residents who wish to participate more actively in the space.

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Riverside Park Waterfront & Pump House

Schenectady, New York

Award Winner:

2003 Schenectady Heritage foundation Preservation Award

The Pump House is a working facility that pumps sewage to an offsite sewage plant. It is a historic structure, dating from the early 1900s, and is located adjacent to a park along the Mohawk River in the City of Schenectady. Synthesis designed facade improvements for the building, while the landscape architect staff provided a landscape design that brings this attractive building into a visual public realm, while physically segregating it. The adjacent park has been redesigned as an attractive greenway, linking two areas of the city. The design incorporates a brick walkway, elevated focal area, bosque, and river overlook, as well as new plantings. This project begins to define a Riverwalk through the historic Stockade District in Schenectady.Synthesis was responsible for obtaining required permits from the State Department of Environmental Conservation (joint application with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) and the New York State Barge Canal Authority, and also provided construction coordination services throughout the construction phase.

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Point Park in Old Forge Town Center Hamlet of Old Forge | Town of Webb, New York

Synthesis worked closely with the Hamlet of Old Forge and the Town of Webb to redevelop Point Park, an important public space in the center of the Hamlet. Located at a very important intersection within the Town, the park functions visually as the focal point for the main street, and physically as a gathering place for residents and visitors enjoying the downtown. The design for the park is rooted in the natural and cultural heritage of the Adirondacks. From initial conception to final construction detailing, there was a constant dedication to using local materials and labor throughout the project and in a way that evoked a sense of place and instilled community pride. Services included conceptual design, programming, full construction documents and detailing, field selection of local materials and coordination with local craftsmen on custom detailing, such as the lanterns and stone piers.

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Upstate New York 9/11 Memorial Schenectady, New York

Four structural steel beams from the World Trade Center rise eloquently toward the sky in this memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Our design for this memorial park, located along the Mohawk River, brings visitors through a city-like grid and between two ghostly representations of the two World Trade Center Towers. A channel of water on axis with the space between the towers visually connects the pools below in the Memorial Plaza. The outer pool, agitated from water falling from the channel above, holds the contorted steel, while the center pool is placid, reflecting the tips of the damaged beams arching overhead. The names of the victims are engraved in three key locations. The American flag is the terminus of the interrupted axis. The landscaped site provides a view of the Mohawk River and includes seat walls wheres visitors may pause and reflect.

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Lippman Park Master Plan

Wawarsing, New York

Synthesis worked closely with the Town of Wawarsing and the Park Committee to develop a Master Plan for Lippman Park that meets the needs of the entire community. The park is approximately 165 acres in size and offers an impressive range of environments, making it an ideal location for an array of different experiences. The master plan illustrates and builds upon the strengths of the existing park with the objective to maximize the potential for active and passive recreation opportunities without compromising the integrity of the park. Recommendations for improving the park include a strong central axis to formalize the existing active recreation area, two new soccer fields, an amphitheater, a warming hut for skating and sledding, a riding ring, a series of trails with interpretive signage to connect the different habitats, and converting the capped landfill site into a naturalized meadow with trails, seating areas, vistas, and educational signage.
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Central Park Ballfields / Park 4 Play Schenectady, New York

Award Winner:

2000 American Institute of Architects Eastern New York Chapter - “Architectural Design Merit Award” - “Park 4 Play”

Synthesis created a new vision for a coordinated series of sports fields in an area of the main park in the City of Schenectady. Included in the vision for Schenectady’s Central Park was elevated promenade spine that provides a new focal point for the park. The promenade includes a walkway, concession, storage, and seating areas, restroom facilities, and an announcement booth tower. A curvilinear “Wall of Champions” engages the new structures and spine, providing an opportunity to showcase the storied baseball heritage of the City. Synthesis was honored with a special award from the American Institute of Architects Eastern New York Chapter. During the awards ceremony, it was stated that this project award was noteworthy in that the Chapter has only, on rare instances, awarded a project that is mostly a site planning and landscape architecture project. They noted that this project exhibited an unusually high degree of integration between architecture and landscape architecture.

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Hudson Crossing

Schuylerville, New York

Synthesis developed the Hudson Crossing Park Master Plan with a holistic view of the project setting and a diverse set of objectives. The Master Plan is the result of an intensive and constructive collaboration that represents a coalescence of ideas, places, trails, destinations, cultural history, municipalities, and people for which this site provides common ground. The initial goal of the Master Plan is to enhance and improve access to existing historical points of interest, improve signage and provide additional parking to bolster public interest in the local and regional area, acting as a catalyst for future funding and project expansion. This project reflects a progressive vision for the future that includes an environmental and cultural education park linking the surrounding communities to each other.Synthesis collaborated with Hudson Crossing and River Street Planning to analyze the various prospective components of the Master Plan and select the components that would be catalysts, or priority projects. The final Master Plan illustrates Hudson Crossing Park as a future hub of activity and economic development for two counties, four towns and two villages, attracting automobile, snowmobile, bicycle, boat and pedestrian traffic. Hudson Crossing will be anchored by the Environmental Education Center; a state-of-the-art green building that will be a significant generator of tourism and research interests. This center will be linked to the local and regional community through an integral system of trails, byways and designated travel corridors as well as to important historic and cultural points of interest.
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Schenectady High School

Courtyard Succession Garden

Schenectady City School District

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Award Winner:

2010 American Society of Landscape Architects

New York Upstate Chapter “Merit Award - Built Design”

Designed as an on-going scientific experiment in local ecology, the Succession Garden is also an artistic interpretation of human’s relationship to nature as seen through the lens of science. A pattern of meandering and overlapping pathways carries the individual from the entry plaza, through the lobby and into the courtyard to mimic the divergent forces of man and nature that ultimately coalesce as a partnership as we strive to achieve an ecologically sustainable future.Modeled on the northern hardwood forest found throughout the Mohawk Valley, the Succession Garden is a “woodland laboratory” that is rooted in natural science. The selection of native plants is representative of the variety of species found in the natural succession stages 4-6 of a northern hardwood forest. The intent of the garden is unusual in that it is designed to be maintained at a minimal level - clearing away leaves only along the pathways, leaving them to decompose naturally on the forest floor to encourage and foster understory growth. The role of the courtyard will be to serve as a gathering and resting place, while also functioning as a working laboratory and beautiful backdrop for students, faculty and visitors to observe and study for years to come.

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