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Residential buildings, Syracuse Free Dispensary and a Syracuse University medical building used to stand where Interstate 81 is now. These structures were once part of the 15th Ward, a neighborhood home to Black, Jewish and immigrant communities destroyed by the construction of I-81.

A group of seven SU architecture students shed light on this history through an installation project in the highway’s underpass.

“Truly so many people were displaced, and it’s crazy that that was allowed,” said Maddie Best, a fourth-year architecture student.

At the end of April, the students painted outlines of seven buildings where they once stood in Syracuse, right across from the now-closed Crowne Plaza hotel near SU’s campus. They painted in the road and parking lot in the underpass of I-81.

The history of I-81 is discussed in multiple courses in SU’s School of Architecture, so the students decided to use an underpass of the highway as their site in the installation project for their seminar, ARC 552: Politics of Public Spaces.

Lori Brown, a professor in SU’s School of Architecture, worked with the city of Syracuse’s public arts coordinator, Anne Cofer, to get permission and ensure the students’ project complied with city guidelines.

The students had to receive city approval for things like the materials used. At first, they wanted to use acrylic paint to make the installation a more permanent mark on the city. In the end, they went with water-soluble paint for the installation, per the city’s request. The students also spoke with the Onondaga Historical Association to gain access to old maps and city plans.

Aryan Ambani and Matthew Williams, both fifth-year architecture students, made maps for the other five students to refer to as they painted on the road. Ambani said they wanted to focus on the 15th Ward to create more awareness about what happened to the neighborhood when I-81 was built.

The 15th Ward, known today as the East Adams neighborhood, was destroyed during the construction period of the I-81 highway. Once a thriving predominantly Black neighborhood, more than 1,300 families were displaced by the viaduct’s construction.

Lily Zuckerman | Assistant Digital Editor

When the students were asked to create an installation for a public space in Syracuse, they knew they wanted it to be related to I-81. The two groups in the course had the same idea, so they combined to create the installation.

“In the overall city history, it’s been something that’s been pushed aside, so to speak,” Ambani said.

Using Google Maps, the students overlaid the old city maps over Syracuse’s current cityscape to trace the outlines of the buildings. They then used this as a reference for painting underneath the I-81 highway.

To avoid cars, the students went to the underpass around midnight on Tuesday, April 22. They wore high-visibility clothing, like neon vests and headlamps, so they could safely see what they were doing as they painted.

The students had to paint the building outlines very quickly due to oncoming traffic, creating the entire installation in about two hours. They measured out the dimensions of the buildings with the map overlay and then traced them with chalk. While one person poured red paint onto the road in a straight line, another person followed them with a paint roller.

Best described the process as quick and messy — the point wasn’t to be clean and neat. When cars drove through the wet paint and left tire tracks on the installation, she said it seemed to symbolize the mark I-81 left on the Black community in Syracuse when the construction ruined their neighborhood.

The students had to be careful to comply with the city of Syracuse’s guidelines when planning the murals. They were required to use water-based paint instead of the original acrylic they had planned, making the paintings less permanent. Joe Zhao | Senior Staff Photographer

“When we walked through the buildings that we painted, it was kind of crazy how much I-81 was a big presence in the area,” Best said. “It was a little disturbing.”

Best said she and her classmates have been talking about I-81’s damage since their first classes at SU, and it’s been at the forefront of their minds since then.

“It’s pretty stuck in our minds that this is one of the most detrimental things that’s happened in Syracuse city planning,” Best said.

Through their seminar, students discussed the evolution of public spaces, such as highways, in relation to social justice issues and politics. Space is something that’s contested, Brown said, with people always having to fight for speech and representation.

Both groups choosing the same topic had never happened before; it reinforced how important this is to the students. The installation brings to life an invisible part of the city’s history with real-life representation.

Their project was meant to attract the attention of Syracuse area residents. Ambani said they hoped that people passing by on foot or in their cars would notice the red building outlines and become curious about what was once there.

Best recalls how oftentimes when freshmen arrive on SU’s campus, they’re told not to go near I-81 because “that’s where it’s dangerous,” but students don’t know why people think that in the first place. There’s a lot of history students can learn via a project like this, which highlights how the construction of I-81 divided the city and SU, she said.

When walking through the installation, Williams said it felt strange knowing what was once there because he could get a full sense of the scale. To Best, it was almost like walking through a graveyard of buildings.

“They finally had a marker, and we were walking through it,” Best said. “It was a very strange, surreal feeling to be walking over what used to be someone’s home.”

Brown likes to give her students the chance to put theory into practice so they can immerse themselves in issues that are of interest to them. She hopes students realize their work can and does make a difference in the world, especially since architecture is inherently a political discipline as well as physical.

Architects directly participate in both of these disciplines, she said.

“Our built world matters, and because architects contribute directly to this, I want them to have experiences where they engage to raise the public’s awareness about something they care about,” Brown said.

Ambani and Williams are graduating from SU’s architecture program this spring. They felt that this installation was the perfect sendoff for them as they graduate, because it encouraged them to think more about how they can impact their next destination beyond traditional architectural work.

Looking forward to the removal of I-81 and the redevelopment of the 15th Ward, Williams hopes that by creating projects like these, the gap between the community and Syracuse’s history can start to close.

“It’s a really good point of reflection for those involved in the planning of the Community Grid and the citizens who are going to vote on this if they haven’t already,” Williams said.

Published on May 8, 2025 at 12:26 am
Contact Mia: mjones58@syr.edu