ARCHITECT

See: Ashley McGraw Architects

Onondaga County/City of Syracuse Criminal Court House 505 South State St. Syracuse, NY 13202 Completed in 2003, this City-County venture, designed by Ashley-McGraw in conjunction with Ricci Greene Associates, houses the City and County criminal court facilities, the Commissioner of Jurors and the Onondaga County District Attorney’s staff in 95,977 square feet of space on 6 levels. www.ongov.net/Facilities/OurFacilities/home.html

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Ashley McGraw Architects, located in Syracuse and Long Island, New York, is an award winning architectural firm with over 35 years’ experience designing educational, institutional and municipal buildings.

(Ed McGraw & Dave Ashley)

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Syracuse as a leader in green technology? It’s possible
David Ashley / Post-Standard contributing writer May 19, 2009 6:01AM
Frank Ordonez, The Post-Standard

David Ashley, AIA, LEED AP, is a founder of Ashley McGraw Architects, in Syracuse. He was named the 2009 green-building advocate of the year at the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry Green Building Conference, in March.

I have a motto posted over my desk that says, “Nothing is Impossible.”

I didn’t originate the phrase; DeWitt Clinton did. He was the force behind the construction of the Erie Canal, which in 1825 transformed the tiny villages of Albany, Rome, Utica, Rochester, Buffalo and, of course, Syracuse into big cities. You could say that the Erie Canal’s effect was worldwide. But when DeWitt Clinton went to the federal government to ask for financial help to build the waterway, Thomas Jefferson told him, “That’s impossible; you could never do that.” Well, he did it.

A century later, Central New York witnessed another remarkable invention: the typewriter. For years the Smith Corona factory operated from Water and Almond streets, in Syracuse. That, too, changed the world.

Yet one more century later, Syracuse will again be the wellspring for economic opportunity. On the Smith Corona factory site, a block from the original location of the canal, the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems is nearing completion. If its promise holds, Syracuse will once again be a world leader. The way I see it, the very presence of this center poses both a challenge and an opportunity for the region’s homeowners, businesses, government and institutions to make Central New York a model community for energy-independent buildings.

Architects and engineers are already designing buildings that use neither oil, natural gas nor coal for energy. Existing buildings can be retrofitted so their energy use is substantially reduced, too. Any additional fuel they need will come from renewable energy sources such as the sun, wind or biofuels.

Architects capture and store solar heat by using solar panels, passive-solar windows that gain more heat over the winter than they lose, daylighting to bring natural light deeper into the building, siting of the building to take advantage of the sun’s angle in different seasons, and painting roofs white to reflect rather than absorb the summer sun. Heavier insulation and tighter buildings also reduce the need for additional heating. In essence, ancient ways combined with modern technology.

Right here in Syracuse, there is enough solar energy on a year-round basis to heat and cool our buildings. We’ve designed buildings for this climate that generate all the energy they require to operate on site, a standard described as “net zero fossil fuels.” They oftentimes return energy to the grid.

Here’s another example, this one from Jason McLennan, CEO of the Cascadia Region US Green Building Council and father of the “Living Building Challenge.” McLennan recently was in Syracuse to keynote the seventh-annual State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry Green Building Conference. He described two houses, identical in every way except that one had a two-car garage topped by a built-out room, while the other house had solar panels on most of the roof. Both cost the same to build, but the second house, McLennan pointed out, will never have an electric bill.

We are on the forefront of the new energy economy. Some day every building in Central New York will have some form of solar panels on the roof. For those who say that’s too expensive, I say there is no price too high to save the planet. We need to start now. Nothing is impossible.