Design That Inspires Collaboration

Originally a partially collapsed parking garage, the building began its reuse journey as INSPYRE’s original home before the vertical expansion. The project transforms the former Tech Garden into a dynamic symbol of innovation, tech-forward education, and community connection. Its undulating façade is a featured design motif projecting the creativity and energy of the entrepreneurs who work inside its walls. The building activates the streetscape, bringing the transparent lobby to the sidewalk, and a prominent media wall at the entrance promotes events and tenant achievements. The building was designed with transparency in mind to engage the city and display the activity of the facility. Inside, an open communicating stair links a reimagined lobby with 30,000 SF of new coworking areas, conference space, lounges, and collaboration zones.

A Kinetic Exterior

The exterior concept of the Innovation Hub is an abstract expression of forward, kinetic motion, mirroring the work happening inside. Soft, flowing forms on the new second and third floors undulate along Harrison Street, echoing the movement of pedestrians and traffic. The second floor is set back to create a 5,000 SF terrace offering elevated access to an outdoor event space, with movable planters and furnishings for spatial flexibility. The terrace provides space for outdoor gatherings, private events, and a secure outdoor zone for drone testing.

The façade conveys a sense of motion through angled ACM panels that orient toward the main entry and a punched-window pattern that breaks down the massing while preserving views and daylight – both key elements that promote productivity and healthy workspaces. A masonry base and select accent materials anchor the building, while refreshed finishes and new signage on the east face connect the expanded Innovation Hub to its urban context.

Go with the Flow

The design concept centers on a movement from exterior to interior. Taking cues from the building form and its soft lines, the lobby interior brings INSPYRE’s energy indoors. A wood-fluted feature wall with an undulating form peels out to integrate key programmed elements along its length, including the reception desk, 1^st floor office corridor, elevator core, and flexible maker space and workshop. The ceiling above follows a similar language, creating a higher accent zone that emphasizes the feature wall. The connecting stairs serve as a powerful formal and organizing element, with a striking linear form clad in a material that matches the exterior façade panels, creating a direct connection to the conference center on the second floor.

The material palette is subdued but thoughtful, featuring warm concrete floors with soft carpet inlays, light oak wood, and bronze metals. This restrained backdrop supports pops of color in the furniture, art, and signage, making the space feel timeless and easy to refresh with minimal interventions.

Sustainable and Strategic Reuse

Reusing existing buildings is almost always the highest-yield sustainability decision when considering GHG emissions. By leaving the structure and select portions of the building’s envelope in place, we generally maintain half to three-quarters of that building’s total embodied carbon by current measures. To that end, the design team, in collaboration with QPK Design, maximized the site’s potential by expanding upward rather than outward, preserving valuable urban space while introducing new program areas.

The original building foundations and concrete column grid provide the backbone for the Innovation Hub’s vertical expansion. Rather than demolish and rebuild, the design team analyzed the existing structure. The analysis confirmed that the concrete columns and foundations could carry the new second and third floors, as well as the roof, with strategic reinforcement. At the cellar and plaza levels, targeted interventions such as reinforcing slabs for the new elevator pit, casting transition retaining walls, and adding transfer girders allow new steel columns to land on the existing structural system, even where the new layout shifts off the original grid.

Above, a new structural steel frame with composite metal deck spans over the existing second-floor concrete slab, which remains in place but no longer carries the primary loads. New building columns either align directly with the existing concrete columns or bear on transfer girders that redistribute loads back into the original foundation system. The same approach continues on the third floor and roof, with steel framing, cantilevered beams where needed for the profile, and column alignment or transfers that respect the original structure. By reusing the existing foundations and concrete frame instead of replacing them, the project avoids significant new concrete and steel, which is critical to the adaptive reuse strategy and dramatically reduces embodied carbon.

With its adaptable layout, modern amenities, and vibrant presence, the INSPYRE Innovation Hub embodies Syracuse’s vision for inclusive, technology-driven growth. It stands as a powerful model for civic transformation through design.