Rehabilitation of The C.W. Snow Warehouse, Syracuse

The former C.W. Snow & Company Warehouse, located at 230 West Willow Street, northwest of the commercial core of the City of Syracuse, was an underutilized poured-in-place-concrete industrial building, the history and significance of which was virtually unknown in Syracuse. It had undergone significant exterior modifications, with its large expanses of windows filled with concrete block and all exterior surfaces painted a light gray, giving the building a forlorn appearance. In the early years of the twenty-first century, the building was listed for sale.

A Syracuse developer with experience in rehabilitation of former industrial space into housing units saw the potential of this resource, with its location between the commercial and institutional core of the city and the popular Franklin Square district, where more than 1,000 housing units had been created from abandoned industrial buildings in the past several years. With an occupancy rate of 99%, it was clear that the loft style apartment was in great demand in Syracuse and the Snow Warehouse was perfectly suited to this type of reuse.

The developer contacted the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) to determine whether the building was a feasible candidate for conversion, utilizing the historic preservation investment tax credits. Participation in that program requires that the property be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in its pre-rehabilitation condition, its historic importance seemed questionable. Not to be dissuaded, the developer hired a local historic preservation consultant to research the building. The consultant discovered that the building was the last commission of noted Syracuse architect Archimedes Russell, who is usually associated with buildings that relied on historic styles in their design. The warehouse, constructed in 1913, is one of the earliest surviving buildings in Syracuse to use the C.A.P. Turner design for mushroom columns. The flared columns support the concrete slab construction without the need for steel girders, a system that was patented in 1908.

When the building's eligibility for the National Register was secured, the developer once again worked closely with the SHPO to design a rehabilitation project to create 48 apartments and a few commercial spaces on the first floor that would meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. The developer submitted the paperwork for both the tax credits and the National Register listing, and in 2006, the building rehabilitation was complete. Within three months, it was 100% leased.

The character-defining mushroom columns were preserved in the rehabilitation and made for interesting spaces within the apartments and public spaces of the building. The large expanses of glass that were originally present in the building were restored, flooding the apartments with light. Unusual historical elements, such as a historic metal staircase, floor paintings, and the company safe, were left visible in the rehabilitation, making each apartment unique, something that also helped in marketing the apartment to potential renters. The demographic of this project, as with others of this type in Syracuse, is a mix of young professionals and "empty nesters" who wanted to be close to downtown Syracuse as its revitalization continues.