SU launches competition to select design firm for National Veterans Resource Complex

SYRACUSE — Syracuse University (SU) is working to select a firm to “conceptualize, design, and construct” the new National Veterans Resource Complex (NVRC).

SU in December announced the launch of an international design competition to select the firm. 

The university has formed a selection committee that includes faculty, staff, students, and design professionals to make the choice.

That firm will handle the NVRC’s architectural, landscape, and engineering design.

“We want to make a national statement. We want to plant a flag,” says J. Michael Haynie, vice chancellor of Veterans and Military Affairs, and executive director, 

Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF). He spoke with CNYBJ on Dec. 23. 

“One of the ways that I think we do that is to create the conditions for some of the nation’s most qualified, best known, highest-profile architects to compete for the honor to design and the opportunity to design this particular facility,” says Haynie.

The NVRC is a “first-of-its kind” facility in the U.S., SU said in a news release. It will leverage a public-private sector partnership model to advance academic research, programming, and “community-connected innovation serving the social, economic, and wellness concerns of the nation’s veterans and families.”

The NVRC will “build upon and advance” SU’s “already strong national leadership” in the veteran community, according to the release.

“It’s going to be entirely new construction,” says Haynie. “The exact footprint is yet to be determined.”

The NVRC is “tentatively” planned for the western portion of the Waverly block on the SU campus. Streets that border the block include Waverly Avenue, South Crouse Avenue, Marshall Street, and University Avenue, says Haynie.

That area includes the Gordon Hoople Building at 805 S. Crouse Ave. When asked if the new construction will affect that facility, Haynie couldn’t say for sure.

“That’s still one of those unknown questions,” says Haynie.

The architectural-design competition will help in determining the NRVC’s footprint, he adds.

Selecting the firm
To facilitate the design competition, SU has asked Martha Thorne, dean of the IE School of Architecture and Design in Madrid, to lead the search for the NVRC’s design firm.

Thorne has no formal connection to Syracuse University, says Haynie.

Thorne, who also serves as the executive director of the Pritzker Prize — the architecture equivalent of the Nobel Prize — will collaborate with SU’s NVRC design-selection committee to invite 30 of the world’s leading architecture firms to submit their qualifications for consideration.

Upon receiving qualifications from the 30 firms, the selection committee will invite a smaller group of firms to submit design proposals. The committee will then select the first round of firms and notify them by mid-January 2016.

The group will then invite the finalists to visit the site and speak with campus representatives about the history, goals, vision, and timeline for the new facility. 

The finalists on April 11 will hand in materials related to their basic design for the project. They will appear on campus to present their proposals to the selection committee in late April 2016. 

SU will then announce the winning proposal and firm in May, the school said.

Funding
The NVRC is a “key pillar” of the Central New York regional economic-development council’s (CNYREDC) winning proposal titled “Central New York: Rising from the Ground Up.” 

The CNYREDC proposal is one of three that the state selected for a $500 million award as part of Gov. Cuomo’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative (URI), also dubbed the “Upstate Hunger Games.” 

Haynie believes SU would have committed to the project even without the state funding as part of the CNYREDC award.

“This project really has been under discussion here at the university for almost two years,” he says.

When asked how much funding the state will award SU, Haynie said he was not aware of any “specific guidance” from New York on the funding question. 

SU Chancellor Kent Syverud, who serves as co-chair of the CNYREDC, says he believes the award will boost the region’s economic trajectory.

“I want to extend my deep gratitude to Gov. Cuomo for his confidence in the proposal we submitted and for his ongoing partnership in supporting veterans and their families,” Syverud said in the SU news release. “The NVRC will serve as the center of veteran life on the campus of Syracuse University, in the local community, and across Central New York. We look forward to receiving proposals from architecture firms who share our vision for the future of this facility and collaborating with the winning firm to bring this idea to life.”

NVRC details
SU describes the NVRC as a “multi-use facility.” It will serve as the eventual new home of the IVMF, an academic institute focused on the concerns of America’s 22.8 million veterans and families.

The IVMF currently operates at 150 Crouse Drive on the SU campus between the Carrier Dome and Holden Observatory.

The NVRC will also house the SU and Regional Student Veteran Resource Center; the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps; the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ‘Vet-Success on Campus’; the National Center of Excellence for Veteran Business Ownership; Veteran Business Outreach Center and Accelerator; and SU’s Office of Veteran and Military Affairs.

The NVRC will include classroom spaces to accommodate local and national veteran-focused programming, as well as a conference center and 1,000-seat auditorium that could host community activities, lectures, events, and conferences.

The firm that the committee selects will design the NVRC as a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)-certified facility, SU said.