Lockerbie, Scotland, is well known as a place of tragedy connected to Syracuse University through the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. But for a new generation of Syracuse University students, the small Scottish town is also an international classroom, a research laboratory and a second home.

In spring 2024, Anna Newbould received a happy call: She had been named a Lockerbie Scholar and would head to Syracuse University that fall. The same day, an orange calf was born on her family’s dairy farm. They named the baby cow Syra.

A few months later, Syracuse students met Syra during their visit to the low-carbon farm, which is part of Syracuse Abroad’s travelling summer course on .

The course exists because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fall 2021, students at Syracuse London expected to travel to Scandinavia for their course. Plans were cut short by the Omicron variant, as international borders closed abruptly once again. But thanks to Kirsty Boardman, a 2007-08 Lockerbie Scholar who now teaches geography at Lockerbie Academy, an alternative, UK-based itinerary was quickly created. Students instead traveled to Scotland, learning from former Lockerbie Scholars and their families about ecosystem restoration projects, Passivhaus housing developments and sustainable forestry.

Green Britain is just one example of Lockerbie opening doors to learning for Syracuse students at short notice. Inclusive education major Mason Burley ’27 was meant to spend summer 2026 in Ghana exploring education policy in diverse contexts as a

When the program was suddenly canceled, a team of Lockerbie Scholars and local teachers came together to host Burley in Scotland instead, enabling him to complete an independent study on civic education practices. A 2026-27 Remembrance Scholar, Burley is now supporting a special project to develop a music video celebrating the “” that have characterized the Lockerbie community since 1988.

These learning experiences are possible thanks to ongoing partnerships between the and community groups in Lockerbie. Each semester, students from Syracuse London travel to Lockerbie on a Remembrance Exchange program, which is made possible by the generosity of Trustee Mike Venutolo ’77 and his wife, Kim. The trips include workshops with local students, a forensic tour of impact sites and a community dinner. These weekends serve not only to build meaningful relationships but also to provide academic enrichment for education abroad.

Yida (Rick) Li ’26 first visited Lockerbie in February 2024 through the London program. He was so inspired by his time at Tundergarth Kirks Trust—a preserved church and educational charity located near a prominent impact site—that he returned two years later to conduct field research for his senior honors thesis.

“,” argues that traditional memorial architecture fails when it attempts to contain memory within a singular, formal object. Rather, sustaining a network of spatial, institutional, oral and ritual practices allows for remembrance to be a “living thing” that can continually be encountered. Li conducted multigenerational interviews, creative workshops and site visits to inform his thesis, which received an honorable mention in the creative category of the and won .

Last month, 23 Syracuse London students traveled to Lockerbie as part of the exchange. For Brynn Wisniewski ’28, time in Lockerbie brought to life “what I have been learning in my Death as Political class and previous political science classes about grief, mourning and the lasting impact of violence on communities.”

Conversations with first responders were especially meaningful for Mouna Toure ’28, a psychology student, who hopes that “my future role as a victim advocate will showcase the value of maintaining a relationship between Lockerbie and Syracuse University.”

Meanwhile, the trip encouraged John Fitzhenry ’28, a television, radio and film major, to consider the limitations of his chosen professional sector. “No piece of media can recreate the kindness that the Lockerbie community gave us. I realized the importance of putting the camera down sometimes.”

Wisniewski, Toure and Fitzhenry had the opportunity to spend time with the 2026 Lockerbie Fellows, 10 senior students at Lockerbie Academy who will soon be traveling to campus to participate in this year’s . Students in the U.K. will honor the victims through a parallel rose-laying event at the London campus, and later in the year will participate in a special Service of Remembrance held by the .

Learn more about , taking place Oct. 18-24.

Story by Becca Farnum

, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) in the , has received a multiyear award from the to develop energy-efficient building panels that are installed with robotic assistance.

The project, “3D-Printed Siding and Human-Robot Collaboration for High-Performance Retrofits,” will support the development of a prefabricated, carbon-sequestering concrete siding system for home energy retrofits, while pairing the new material with a collaborative human-robot installation process. The goal is to improve building performance while making retrofits faster, more efficient and safer for construction workers.

New York State has an estimated 5.3 million single-family homes, more than half of which were built before 1960. The state also has a substantial stock of older multifamily buildings, creating significant opportunities for energy-efficiency retrofits. Yu’s project will test the 3D-printed panels in the lab, comparing how they perform against conventional wall assemblies. The team will also conduct field testing at the Building Envelope Systems Test (BEST) Facility, an on-campus testbed used to evaluate building performance in real-world conditions. Finally, they plan to complete a full-scale dormitory retrofit on the University’s South Campus.

“Our prior work showed that 3D-printable concrete can be designed to increase carbon uptake through both material formulation and the geometric freedom enabled by 3D printing,” says Yu. “This NYSERDA project takes the next step by integrating that material into a complete building-envelope retrofit system and pairing it with robot-assisted installation. The goal is to demonstrate how these technologies can work together at building scale and help create more energy-efficient, lower-carbon retrofit solutions for New York.”

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the project will be supported by three co-PIs:

• , associate dean for research, Traugott Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, ECS
• , assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, ECS
• , assistant professor, School of Architecture

The team will also work with industry partners, including two New York State-based companies. Construction Robotics will advise on robot-assisted construction workflows, while Taitem Engineering will serve as an independent, third-party evaluator for pre- and post-retrofit performance monitoring.

The project aims to give New York State a clear, data-backed commercialization route for a retrofit option that is both energy-efficient and affordable for single-family and multi-family homeowners alike, while also helping address labor shortages and reducing occupational hazards in the construction industry.

“This project embodies the kind of interdisciplinary, solutions-focused research that ECS is advancing,” says Dong. “With collaboration across materials science, robotics, civil engineering and architecture, we are turning a promising material into a retrofit system that is ready to scale across New York’s aging building stock.”

Yu is affiliated with the University’s BioInspired Institute and holds expertise in advanced manufacturing, mechanics of materials, sustainable infrastructure and engineered living materials. He holds a Ph.D. in structural engineering from the University of Southern California and joined ECS in 2025 after completing postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Three Syracuse Architecture faculty members contributed projects and programming to , the annual art and architecture festival held at on the historic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York.

The 2026 festival launched “Acts of Construction,” a new three-year curatorial initiative exploring how architecture can adapt, evolve and support future uses, performances and forms of public engagement. The first installment, “Act One: Staging,” features faculty, students, architects, artists and designers from institutions across the country who constructed large-scale architectural prototypes, installations, interventions and activations designed to serve as infrastructure for future activities and public engagement.

Hannibal Newsom Collaborates on ‘Wildflowers’

Assistant Professor contributed to BuildFest 2026 through “Wildflowers,” a collaborative installation created with and , both of whom are former Syracuse Architecture faculty members and now teach at .

Supported by Syracuse University’s Coca-Cola sponsorship, “Wildflowers” begins with a custom-designed, recyclable 3D-printed PETG joint that enables multidirectional wood-to-wood connections. The joints connect dimensional lumber into cross-shaped columns that rise from the ground like wildflowers after rain and brace the structure together, creating a layered field of thresholds and frames that draws the eye across the landscape. Inspired by the resilience of wildflowers, the pavilion was designed to go up quickly and yet be easily disassembled and rebuilt year after year. Relying only on simple hex bolts, the connections can be removed, reorganized and reattached while leaving the wood largely intact for future use. Shaped like a four-petaled flower, the open theater-in-the-round pavilion features fabric wings that tint the sunlight and sway in the wind. The installation will host a year of performances before being disassembled and repurposed for future performances and activities at next year’s festival, as part of the next phase of “Acts of Construction.”

“Wildflowers” brought together students and faculty from both institutions to fabricate and install the pavilion. Seven Lehigh University students and four Syracuse University students worked alongside Newsom, Scott and Zhang throughout the fabrication and construction process. The project was also supported by Lehigh University’s Hammerschlag Design-Build Initiative, which helped provide funding for student participation.

The Syracuse Architecture student team included Danna Ochoa Cardenas ’29, Mia Mueller ’27, Selina Peh ’27 and Carson Probert G’28, while the Lehigh University student team included Chloe Cheng ’26, Shenandoah Dawn DeNardo ’28, Mitchell Ertle ’27, Jacob Hammer ’27, Teniece Harris ’28, Aimi Saloum ’27 and Catherine Sanchez ’28. The project also involved Syracuse students throughout its development: architecture research student Mingrui Xie ’26 helped develop design models and prototypes for the project submission, while Yicheng Zhou ’28 worked in the shop over the summer to prefabricate the 3D-printed components and prepare the lumber for installation.

“This project gave our students the opportunity to be involved in every step of the design-build process, from developing models and prototypes to prefabricating components and completing the final installation,” says Newsom. “Working alongside students from Lehigh University, they learned to collaborate, adapt and problem-solve in real time as they brought the pavilion to life.”

Benjamin Vanmuysen Explores Reuse with ‘Flying Buttruss’

Instructor participated in BuildFest 2026 with “Flying Buttruss,” an intervention that reimagined materials from a previous BuildFest project to explore themes of adaptation, reuse and performance in construction.

ÌęWorking alongside 10 students—six from Syracuse University and four from the (RPI)—Vanmuysen mined lumber, hardware and LED lighting components from “Stacked & Strapped,” a 2025 BuildFest installation, and reconfigured them into a lightweight illuminated truss suspended between trees on the Bethel Woods site. Through a process of disassembly, reconfiguration, relocation and reconstruction, the project transformed the compact, monolithic bench into an elongated truss.

Like its predecessor, the new intervention explores the relationship between compression and tension, with the pressure-treated studs and ratchet straps working together to create the structure. Its appearance also changes throughout the day and into the night as the LED rope lights illuminate the truss from within. Conceived on the historic camping grounds and raised in the woods, “Flying Buttruss” responds to the site’s history while transforming the construction process itself into a form of performance.

The Syracuse Architecture student team included Gabriela Casciani G’29, Hallie Meyer ’27, Michael Papagni G’29, Katherine Tang ’27, Daniel Antonio Velasquez G’29 and Chelsea Zhang ’27, while the RPI student team included Allyson Devine ’27, Abby Lagana ’27, Nihar Menon ’27 and Jack Zhang ’27.

“‘Flying Buttruss’ revolves around a series of acts, including disassembly, pre-tensioning and finally the raising of the truss,” says Vanmuysen. “In the last act of construction, the structure became the protagonist of the building performance.”

Ekin Erar Hosts Design-Build Workshop

Instructor participated in BuildFest 2026 by leading “Froggo Bench,” a hands-on design-build workshop offered as part of the festival’s public programming.

The workshop introduced students to reversible and iterative construction methods that do not rely on conventional hardware. Using a CNC-milled, mono-material system, participants assembled a bench through dry-fit connections and wooden pegs, gaining firsthand experience with joinery techniques and material behavior through the act of building.

Rather than creating a fixed piece of furniture, the workshop explored assembly as an open-ended design process. The adaptable joinery system allows “Froggo Bench” to be repeatedly disassembled and reconfigured, enabling new arrangements to emerge over time. In this way, the bench’s final form is not predetermined by the original design but can be continuously reshaped by those who assemble and use it.

“Froggo Bench” was developed as a furniture-scale prototype of the assembly logic used in the 10⁶ mirrored pavilion, which Syracuse Architecture students previously constructed at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum. By working at full scale, students connected digital fabrication techniques with hands-on construction, using the building process itself as a tool for exploration and design. The workshop emphasized construction not simply as the execution of a finished concept, but as a creative process through which students tested, adapted and reimagined an open-ended assembly system.

“The open-ended assembly system developed through “Froggo Bench” operates simultaneously as a building and a design method, allowing students to produce rapidly deployable architectural interventions while developing an understanding of the potential of reversible, monomaterial assemblies designed with future reuse, disassembly and recycling in mind,” says Erar.

The work created during “Act One: Staging” will provide the foundation for the next two editions of “Acts of Construction,” with the installations produced this year serving as the starting point for “Act Two: Choreography” in 2027 and “Act Three: Performance” in 2028. Learn more about BuildFest 2026 and the “Acts of Construction” initiative at .

Visitors stepping into the New York Botanical Garden’s will find a perforated aluminum structure, the curved panels etched with the patterns of a microscopic view of plant leaves.

The structure, designed and constructed by Syracuse University instructors Hermine Demaël and , draws attention through its shape to the curved glass of the greenhouse. Its elements, including a water mister, create a microclimate within the conservatory, offering shade and cooling to visitors and plants alike.

“Hopefully there’s a real sense of what design can do and what design could be,” Zimmerer says. “That’s something that we both think about in our teaching and also the way that we hope our work interfaces with the general public.”

Since its installation, plants have quickly grown over the installation, drawn by the cooler climate around it. Visitors, too, have engaged playfully with the misting feature, so much that a sign had to be put up asking people not to touch the structure.

How the Project BeganÌę

Demaël and Zimmerer, both architectural designers, met while teaching at Syracuse two years ago and have been since. The structure at the botanic gardens, which will be on display until Oct. 5, is their third built project together and is a reconfiguration of a small greenhouse they were invited to build on campus by School of Architecture Dean Michael Speaks.

The pair took apart that greenhouse and redesigned its parts to create the New York Botanical Garden installation.

The project began as a result of a research grant they were awarded alongside research scientist by the Architecture League of New York and the New York Council on the Arts. The grant supports the dissemination of architectural projects to the general public in New York State.

Demaël says the intent of the installation in the botanic garden is multiple.

“A very first interest that we had is that a visitor that encounters this prototype notices the types of assemblies, the types of architectural systems and details that are at play and visible in our installation,” she says. “And that the visitor would then notice patterns and see how they are also existing all over the larger greenhouse. At the botanical garden, the architecture maybe seems secondary for the visitor, when in reality, there really is none of these beautiful plant sceneries without it.”

DemaĂ«l and Zimmerer say having the structure be etched with the drawing of a leaf’s architecture gets at the interdisciplinary goals of their work and how they hope to leverage their skills as architects to explore how to make the built environment a more livable place.

“We think a lot about how our tools as architects really train us very specifically to work with plants and to work with climate,” says Zimmerer. “They give us tools to think about assembly and detail and how materials come and fit together.”

Plants, like architectural structures, Demaël points out, are also trying to mediate environmental stress or increasing heat.

“They’ve created their own architectures per se, and we’re asking how we, as designers, can learn from the way they have adapted, how they have transformed,” she says.

What’s Next

Demaël and Zimmerer say the next iteration of their inquiry will center on continued collaboration with scientists and others outside architectural design.

The hope is the next project will be set in a new ecological context.

“We’ve been having all of these conversations with the scientists at the botanical garden about migration and migration lag, which is an effect where species migrate based on climate change,” DemaĂ«l says. “We want to think of our installation and its next iteration as being part of that migration lag and take seriously what we’ve learned and understand how our architecture might manifest in a different context, to help convey those narratives.”

The third iteration would continue the evolution of the project that began on the Syracuse campus, which they call “Greenhouse Prototype One;” they refer to the installation at the botanical garden as “Greenhouse Prototype Two.”

The first prototype built at Syracuse University was an airtight, lightweight greenhouse enclosure that had its own climate inside. The installation at the botanic garden, which they built using School of Architecture facilities, is focused on porosity and passive heating and cooling effects that produce climate, not through difference, but through gradients.

“That connected to this interest in migration and how species are moving and the idea that maybe greenhouses could be less like houses and more like hotels was something that we would say to each other as we were working,” Zimmerer says. “And so we imagine this object as being situated within flows and migrations of species over big geographic regions, as a comfortable environment where a plant or an animal species could stop for a minute and then carry on on its way.”

A student team from the was recently announced as a prize winner in the .

Administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the 26th annual Steel Design Student Competition challenged undergraduate and graduate students to explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction.

This year’s competition offered architecture students the opportunity to compete in two separate categories. In Category I, students were challenged to design a community dance center and address how it can contribute to the community as an integral part of the civic fabric. Category II presented students with the option to select a site and building program of their choice, using steel as the primary material.

The eleven winning projects were selected for their innovative designs using structural steel and their design responses to local contexts. For each category, the jurors chose first, second and third-place winners, along with additional honorable mentions.

Bruno YehÌę ’27 and Yanwen (Gareth) Pang ’27 won second place in the Community Dance Center category for their project, , which stems from the idea that everyone is a participant in a performance; from staff to students and visitors.

As part of the fourth-year undergraduate integrated design studio (ARC 409), Yeh and Pang worked under the direction of their faculty sponsor Ryan Doyle, a part-time instructor at the School of Architecture, to develop a design that challenges the programmatic hierarchies commonly found in performance centers. Their proposal elevates the experience of support spaces while giving guests a glimpse into the processes integral to putting on a show.

The structure is streamlined to be achievable using local recycled steel. The building’s entire primary steel structure can be constructed using the equivalent of one block of the Syracuse I-81 Viaduct, transforming a historically divisive element of the city into a new local hub of connection and gathering.

“The Dance is recognized for the methodically developed design, demonstrating careful consideration of structure, sustainability, materiality and building performance,” noted the jurors. “The expressive steel system, featuring an extended fly-tower and spanning trusses, establishes a strong architectural framework that supports both the spatial experience and the project’s narrative of revealing the performance process. The clear sectional studies and detailed axonometric drawings effectively communicate the design’s technical execution.”

“I’m humbled to have been part of a winning project that bridged my learning between school and professional practice,” says Yeh. “It was especially meaningful to work alongside Gareth after we began our Syracuse Architecture journey together in the same ARC 107 studio during our first semester. Throughout the process, I learned a tremendous amount from both Gareth and Professor Doyle and grew as a designer and collaborator.”

“This recognition is an important milestone for Bruno and me as emerging architects,” said Pang. “The success of our project encourages us to continue challenging ourselves as designers and to deepen our contributions to the field of architecture.”

Winning students and their faculty advisors will each receive a cash prize along with the opportunity to have their projects exhibited at the 2027 ACSA Annual Meeting and the 2027 AIA National Convention, as well as published in a competition summary publication.

Mark your calendar: The Summit kicks off festivities on Thursday, Sept. 17.

Reflecting Chancellor Haynie’s belief that the University’s greatest strength is its people, The Summit invites the University community to explore the ideas, people and collaboration defining Syracuse University’s future.

The schedule is designed so community members can drop in for a single session or take part in the entire day.

The Passport Challenge

Pick up a limited-edition Syracuse keychain and event passport in Panasci Lounge during the Summit Showcase, then collect three different commemorative charms as you move through the day. Complete at least five passport activities and turn it in at Orange Fest on Sept. 18 for a chance to win tickets to the University Suite at a men’s basketball game. Also stop by for inauguration keepsakes, including blankets and drinkware, showing your Syracuse University spirit.

Start the Day With Big Ideas

Head to Schine Student Center at 9 a.m. for the Syracuse Summit Showcase, where schools and colleges from across campus will have tables organized around five themes: artificial intelligence, experiential inquiry, creating (innovation, invention and design), engagement and access. Presentations include the following:

• Check out hands-on demos, including an immersive crime scene experience from Forensic and National Security Sciences; live hearing tests from the Gebbie Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic team; and inventions built by students from Invent@SU.
• The College of Engineering and Computer Science and School of Information Studies are teaming up on an AI and robotics showcase.
• The Newhouse School of Public Communications will spotlight student-led national reporting alongside an interactive opportunity with the Center for the Creator Economy.
• The College of Arts and Sciences will showcase community-engaged humanistic scholarship and its impact on the Syracuse community.
• The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) will showcase art, design and performances across all disciplines.
• Other participants also include the School of Architecture, Falk College, the College of Law, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the National Veterans Resource Center.

Keynote: Future in Focus

At noon, Goldstein Auditorium is the place for Future in Focus, where members of our community will share personal stories of change, resilience and reinvention through a series of short talks.

Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. for a complimentary lunch buffet, and the program will begin at noon.

An Afternoon of Discovery

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., there will be a full slate of collaborative sessions across campus.

• Discover study abroad and away. Find out about the variety of opportunities available from representatives on the Quad (11 a.m.-3 p.m.).
• Committing to Academic Access and Inclusion for All Learners at SU and Beyond (1-1:45 p.m., Huntington Hall Commons), a panel with the School of Education, College of Law and College of Professional Studies.
• VPA in the Making: Ideas, Experiments, Performances and Possibilities (1-5 p.m., first floor, Shaffer Art Building), featuring a college-wide exhibition of student, faculty and alumni work, with pop-up performances in Shemin Auditorium.
• Game Changers: A Conversation with Mike Levine of CAA Sports (2-3 p.m., Flaum Grand Hall, Whitman School of Management). Levine, the co-founder of CAA’s Sports Division, talks career and the business of sports media with Falk College Dean Jeremy Jordan.
• Veteran and Military-Connected Syracuse: Education, Research and Impact (3-4:30 p.m., National Veterans Resource Center Lobby). Meet student veterans and ROTC cadets, tour the Hall of Honor and NVRC Gallery, and grab complimentary coffee from the Canteen CafĂ©.
• Solving Grand Challenges Together (3-3:45 p.m., Schine Student Center). College of Arts and Sciences faculty and researchers dig into interdisciplinary work spanning the University.
• The 38th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy (3:30-5 p.m., Strasser Legacy Room, Eggers Hall). Journalist and author Gary Taubes will speak on diet, disease and the limits of scientific consensus.
• AI Across Syracuse: Ideas, Innovation and Impact (4-4:45 p.m., Schine Student Center). Faculty from across the University will share how their program, unit or initiative is working with AI and why it matters.

Elsewhere, don’t miss two exhibitions at Bird Library: “” (all day) tracing the impact of the University’s 13 chancellors across more than 150 years, and “” (2 to 5 p.m.), a University Archives pop-up on how students have driven change on campus.

On the Einhorn Walk, stop by “Charting Our Future Together.” At this interactive station, you can add your own ideas about where Syracuse should be headed, from what campus looks like in 20 years to what every student should experience by 2045.

Each semester, upper-level architecture students participate in the visiting critic program that brings leading architects and scholars from around the world to the school. Four studios will be held on campus this fall.

Lap Chi Kwong and Alison Von Glinow (Kwong Von Glinow)

and will lead “New Rooms: Re-building the Chicago Bungalow,” an investigation into one of Chicago’s most recognizable housing types and its potential role in the city’s future.

Built primarily between 1910 and the mid-1930s, Chicago bungalows comprise nearly one-third of the city’s single-family housing stock and remain a defining feature of many neighborhoods. Originally promoted as an affordable path to homeownership, the bungalow was designed for working- and middle-class families. Over generations, homeowners have adapted these houses to accommodate changing needs, demonstrating remarkable capacity for transformation while maintaining its recognizable identity.

The studio explores how this historic housing type might be reimagined for contemporary life. Responding to evolving household structures, accessibility requirements, environmental performance and changing relationships between public and private space, students will reconsider the bungalow from the inside out. Working across multiple scales, they will explore new ways of living together and speculate on the future of housing in Chicago. A field trip to Chicago will provide firsthand exposure to significant residential projects and housing precedents across the city.

Kwong and Von Glinow will also present a on Sept. 22 at 5:30 p.m. in the atrium of Slocum Hall.

Michael Abel Deng and Nile Greenberg (Abel Nile New York)

and will lead “Programless Studios,” an exploration of how architecture can respond to an increasingly uncertain future.

The studio begins with a fundamental question: if program no longer

determines form, what does? Contemporary architects must contend with an expanding range of forces that shape buildings over time, including climate risks, changing regulations, energy requirements, insurance pressures, construction systems and evolving patterns of occupancy. While buildings are often designed around a specific program, that program may change dramatically over the course of a building’s lifespan.

Since the rise of modern functionalism, architecture has frequently treated program as the primary generator of organization and form. “Programless Studios” challenges that assumption. Today, many of the forces that strongly influence architecture are concentrated in the building envelope, where structure, climate control, regulation, construction, water management and economics intersect. The studio treats their conflicts as a productive source of architectural form.

Students will develop new design methods through a series of formal superimpositions, combining geometric systems and testing them against competing structural, material, environmental and construction logics. Program will be introduced only after the architecture has taken shape, serving as a test of occupation rather than a starting point for design.

Abel Deng and Greenberg present a on Oct. 1 at 5:30 p.m. in the atrium of Slocum Hall.

Erin Cuevas and Zachary Matthews (CMLA), Alex Sheft and John Farrace (Sheft Farrace), Ali Chen (Ali Conchita Chen)

, , , and will co-teach “Window Shopping: Reframing the Seasonal Storefront,” which will reframe the storefront retail typology through the lens of a seasonal campaign for the re-release of a brand’s vintage footwear silhouette.

Students will investigate both the literal and conceptual framing of products, exploring how storefronts and other framing devices shape consumer interactions with brands. The work sits at the intersection of brand storytelling, architectural design and the retail experience.

Students will examine the visual language and marketing history of a specific brand as the foundation for developing an original footwear campaign. Through four successive modules led by industry professionals, they will create a holistic seasonal marketing package that connects brand graphics, imagery and storytelling with facade design, windows, spatial experience and theatrical visual merchandising. The studio will culminate in the design of a provocative storefront and product window for each student’s selected footwear silhouette.

This studio is among several collaborative programs currently being developed by Syracuse Architecture and Polimoda, including a post-professional master of science degree program, , launching this fall. Students will contribute to this larger body of research through related events and activities, including travel to New York City, Los Angeles and Italy.

Dan Wood (WORKac)

will lead “Solarpunk Fishing Collective,” which asks students to envision an optimistic architectural response to global instability.

Set in Galilee, Rhode Island, a major fishing port, the studio centers on the design of a new home for the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island. The project combines infrastructure, housing, education and public space to support the fishing community while exploring how architecture can strengthen collective power and civic life. By bringing together spaces for work, learning and living, students will investigate new models for community-centered development and resilience.

The studio also seeks to define a contemporary solarpunk aesthetic. Borrowing from steampunk’s blend of technology and imagination, solarpunk uses “radical optimism” to envision a more collective and forward-looking society, driven by the rapid growth of renewable energy and global electrification. Students will explore how active green infrastructure and contemporary architectural design can come together to create an expressive visual language for this vision.

Through research, drawing, modeling and design, students will develop architectural proposals that respond to current social, environmental and economic challenges while projecting a more sustainable and optimistic future. A field trip to Rhode Island will provide firsthand exposure to the site, local communities and the region’s maritime infrastructure.

For the second year running, Syracuse University is claiming an entire week on “,” the nationally syndicated program that brings university research to NPR stations across North America and to international listeners worldwide.

Five scholars will each take a turn during “Syracuse Week,” Aug. 17–21, sharing work that spans food policy, artificial intelligence, architecture, political science and marine biology:

Monday, Aug. 17: , professor of public administration and international affairs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, examines how new SNAP work requirements will restrict benefits for adults ages 60–64, increasing food insecurity and ultimately costing taxpayers more through Medicare and Medicaid.

Tuesday, Aug. 18: , research professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, explores whether humans can still distinguish real people from AI-generated ones. In a study co-authored with Gina Luttrell, participants identified synthetic profiles correctly only 54% of the time—barely above random chance—while an AI detector hit 88% accuracy. (Related article)

Wednesday, Aug. 19:, associate professor in the School of Architecture, argues that architecture shapes not just space, but time itself. From Rome’s stone-inscribed calendars to today’s airport priority lanes, he traces how buildings have long organized whose time is valued—and whose is not.

Thursday, Aug. 20: , professor of political science in the Maxwell School, draws on his book “” to argue that American secession, however appealing to the polarized, would almost certainly turn violent.

Friday, Aug. 21: , research assistant professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, describes how suction-cup tags and remote-sensing technology help identify whale foraging hot spots in Massachusetts Bay—with real-time alerts pushed to mariners to prevent deadly ship strikes on endangered right and sei whales. (Related article)

Each segment airs on NPR-affiliated stations and is posted online at following its broadcast date.

A hand-drawn architectural rendering from 1926. Photos of the toboggan run and multiple hockey rinks. Postcards from the 1950s capturing skiers posing as they went off a jump.

Those are just a few of the items in an exhibition celebrating the history of Drumlins Country Club. The University-owned club is marking its centennial with monthly events, including an exhibition that offers a chance to step back in time.Ìę Visitors can witness the evolution of the club from a 260-acre chicken farm to a facility that offered students and the local community outdoor recreation opportunities year-round, from golf and swimming in the warm months to skiing, skating and sledding in the winter.

The exhibition came together in just a few months, pairing Drumlins’ in-house archive with the expertise of , associate professor and program coordinator for museum studies in the , and Morgan Clarke ’29, an undergraduate and museum studies minor.

Joseph Sidoni, interim director of Drumlins, reached out to Saluti in February, knowing the professor was both a member and neighbor to the club, to help organize the club’s photos and artifacts into a gallery.

“Because we have a lot of historical photos and artifacts and architectural drawings, etcetera, we thought it’d be a great idea to set it up and outline the history of Drumlins,” says Sidoni.

For Saluti, whose home was originally part of the same farm that was purchased in 1926 for the development of Drumlins, the interest in participating was more than just professional.

“I live directly across the street, so for me this was a project that was very personal,” he says. “It was something I felt I really wanted to do, and then, being able to make it a curricular experience with students was even better. But the history of the area, the history of the connection to SU, a lot of that to me it was a story that I’ve always loved and I was excited to be a part of making a little display.”

A Unique Learning Experience

Clarke was excited when she learned about the opportunity to assist with the exhibition. She declared a minor in museum studies in the spring, after learning of a career path in exhibition design, and was eager to gain experience.

“I was like, ‘Wait, this is the perfect position for me,’” she says.

Clarke used her experience as an architecture student to create a 3D model of the gallery space. Saluti says she also did the majority of the digitization of the artifacts and helped install the exhibition in late April.

Saluti and Clarke also drew on the for documentation on the club’s ties to the University.

“It was really cool to just go through the collections and think about how we could show the story through both objects—for example, we had golf clubs and old tournament trophies and plaques—and then also visually through photographs,” says Clarke. “Typically there’s more text in an exhibit, but we focused on the visual aspects of the story.”

The quick turnaround for the project offered Clarke, who didn’t have any experience in curatorial research or exhibition design, a unique hands-on opportunity to do archival research, digitization of original material and design the exhibition’s storytelling.

Saluti says Clarke “dove right in.”

“These are the experiences that get faculty excited,” he says. “They get us excited to be able to share that experience with students, but also they help to inspire the students to rethink how they might use that academic degree.”

Clarke says working on the project felt like the first step toward exhibition design.

“I took a museum studies class this past semester, but it was more focused on practice and the collection and preservation of museum artifacts,” she says. “It was really exciting to get that actual hands-on experience and think about how this career path could be an exciting opportunity for me.”

An Opportunity to Discover and Reminisce

Saluti says he learned a lot about the club’s history as a hub for both the University and the broader community.

“I want people to come into the display and remember their experiences the same way I do,” Saluti says. “One of the objects that we have in the exhibition is the announcement of the new pool from 1981. I have neighbors who grew up with that pool. So to have an exhibition that helps you navigate that history and helps you think back, it’s really nostalgic.”

Some club members even loaned items for use in the gallery.

“There are folks whose families have been at Drumlins for 50-plus years, and then you have University folks who don’t know anything about Drumlins,” Sidoni says. “It’s nice to get them in the gallery and have them take a look at how far we’ve come.”

The exhibition will remain on view through the year as Drumlins approaches two flagship centennial events: an and a .