The Warehouse, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Photograph by David Heald)

When I was a student at Syracuse University, the institution seemed aloof and distant from the city that gave it its name. The topographic split between the hilltop university and the city below reinforced both the distance and the socio-cultural barrier. I rarely ventured downtown.

Last week, I experienced many welcome surprises when I returned to my undergraduate alma mater after 21 years. While its building is being renovated, the university’s School of Architecture has temporarily moved into a building known as “The Warehouse.” It’s one of many buildings that are a part of a rebirth in downtown Syracuse.

The renovation of the Warehouse—by Richard Gluckman, of the New York architecture firm Gluckman Mayner Architects—features big windows that put the frenetic activity of the School of Architecture’s design studios on display to passersby. Martin Marciano, the firm’s project manager for the Warehouse, told me the windows were meant to serve as a billboard advertising the school to an arts district that has formed around the Armory Building, a historic structure nearby. Where visitors once feared to tread, a vibrant public space is now full of color and light—an important development, because an essential element in the study of architecture is learning about the role that public space has in forming civic life.

Much of the impetus for developments in Syracuse can be attributed to two extraordinary Syracuse University leaders: the chancellor, Nancy Cantor, and the dean of the College of Architecture, Mark Robbins. These two are at the center of a new coalition between the city and the university. Joint ventures now exist to imagine what was once almost unimaginable, such as a biotech-research park and a series of urban-renewal projects that aim at single-family houses and at converting underutilized buildings to new uses. Former manufacturing buildings are being reborn as loft-type housing, and many graduate students have chosen to live in area around the Armory Building, rather than in traditional off-campus housing closer to the university.

Other cities have enjoyed urban renewals, of course. What’s interesting in Syracuse is the role played by the university, and specifically by the School of Architecture. Syracuse architecture students learn by working on exciting local projects, and they experience the results firsthand. While the curriculum in the studio and the classroom keeps the school ranked among the top U.S. architecture colleges, it is new developments in the city itself that will have the most lasting impact on students.

Public spaces in a university environment are precious—they are where interaction and debate have always taken place. The opportunities for growth and exchange of ideas grow exponentially when the public space of a university and a city intersect. Can more be done to advance this coalition? What about the desire of undergraduates who live on the campus to study closer to home? When the renovation is complete, what’s the fate of the Warehouse? How do such partnerships outlast the current leadership? These questions and more form the basis of a strong beginning. Couple this with the “real” design experience students receive, and you have a formula for an amazing education. —Mark McVay

Mark McVay, one of this month’s guest bloggers, is design director in the Los Angeles office of the architecture firm SmithGroup. You can read his previous posts here, here, and here.