recent projects

Community Banners

The R2G Downtown Committee organized two pole banner campaigns which pictured 90 new business owners, long-time employees and non-profits helping to highlight community leaders and to promote a walkable and vibrant Downtown.

Oneida Square Project Mosaic Creations

As an outgrowth of the 2015 One World Flower Fest, R2G began helping Oneida Square Art & Design establish and identify funding to advance its work as a social enterprise training and employing individuals with significant barriers to employment.  Employees are creating unique mosaic outdoor amenities and furnishings celebrating the culture and history of Utica. Their mosaic litter receptacles and planters are now seen throughout the City of Utica’s public spaces.

“Into the New Century” Historic Building Rehab

An R2G CFA application secured over $600,000 NYS DOS and National Grid funding to help a private developer stabilize, renovate and preserve the National Landmark New Century Club at 253 Genesee Street. Designed by Frederick H. Gouge, this legacy building was home to the New Century Club, founded in 1893 as a women’s civic organization and considered a pinnacle of the Women’s Movement. 

Utica Parks Master Plan

R2G participated in interviews and helped the City of Utica select a consultant to work with an Advisory Committee to assist with the preparation of a parks and recreation master plan for its 677 acres of municipally owned and operated parkland, including three main parks listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

2014-2016 HUD Community Needs Assessment

The Utica R2G Urban Studio collaborated with City, Federal, State and local partners to engage the community to conduct a HUD Community Needs Assessment focused on community and economic development priorities. 1,200 students and 1,000 residents and employees provided input via surveys and community roundtables developed and facilitiated by R2G which also played a key role in finalizing a 2-year HUD Action Plan, with targeted implementation strategies and public/private funding strategies.

2016 Utica HOME Program

In an effort to support comprehensive neighborhood development, the R2G Urban Studio Team contracted with the City of Utica to provide planning, community engagement and educational assistance to implement the City’s Federal HOME funding in target neighborhoods beginning with Utica’s West Side.

Healthy lead-free homes

Building on R2G Utica’s 2016 West2Green Project, the R2G Studio team undertook spearheading the Sunset Avenue and Stark Street Lead Demonstration Project with Lead Free Mohawk Valley partners. Together they designed and implemented a model program incorporating lead hazard controls, energy efficiency, “Healthy Homes” strategies and façade improvements. Ten homes in Utica’s West Side were identified for rehab in preparation for a 2017 HUD LEAD Hazard Control Program application.

Zombie Initiative

R2G and the City of Utica, with $250,000 in funding from the Local Support Initiatives Corporation (LISC) through the Zombie and Vacant Property Remediation and Prevention Initiative (ZPI). Beginning in 2018, R2G fully spearheaded the project and administered the grant. Our work involved developing protocols to inventory, tracking and analyzing Utica’s vacant and abandoned properties, establishing and managing a Vacant Property Task Force to identify priorities and strategies to address blight and housing issues, and determining technological needs to collect, analyze, map and share property data internally and with the public as well as connect at-risk homeowners to foreclosure prevention resources. In April 2019 we hosted a LISC statewide summit in Utica and went on to secure a new round of funding for the City to address zombie properties which is now being managed by the City’s own planners.

https://www.uticazombies.com/

Greater Mohawk Valley Land Bank

R2G helped facilitate Utica City legislation to support an application for a Mohawk Valley Land Bank to address vacant, abandoned and blighted properties located in the Mohawk Valley region. The new Greater Mohawk Valley Land Bank is acting in conjunction with Foreclosing Governmental Units (FGUs), other municipalities, and non-profit groups to help leverage local and regional resources.

Bagg’s Square Sustainable Neighborhood Development

In 2013, R2G helped re-establish the 501-c-3 Bagg’s Square Association to help revitalize the oldest and most visible entryway into the City. This area had drawn attention as one of Utica’s most disinvested and vacant commercial centers. Cornell R2G Civic Fellows spent the summer of 2014 assisting Association members with initial research, website development and planning to identify assets, foster neighborhood identity and identify revitalization actions. This helped set the stage for the subsequent year when, in 2014, Cornell’s R2G Capstone Design Studio worked with the Association and a cadre of State agencies and stakeholders to undertake and a 6-month community-engaged design visioning process called ‘Putting the Square Back in Bagg’s Square,’ and outlining comprehensive steps towards sustainable neighborhood revitalization and redevelopment.

DEC Brownfield Cleanup for future Bagg’s Park

Concept plans generated through this process enabled R2G to create a successful application ($264,000) to undertake a NYS DEC cleanup of a City-owned brownfield site for the the future land use of an art and culture-focused public space known as Bagg’s Park and uniting the east and west parts of the neighborhood. The site was cleaned for park use and is currently being used for the temporary Handshake City pop-up park coordinated by Made in Utica. Unfortunately the City government is no longer committed to the site’s end use as a public park and instead plans to turn the entire site into a surface parking lot.

Neighborhood Identity

The R2G team engaged business and building owners, employees and residents in a series of “neighborhood” identity and branding processes helping to identify and highlight neighborhood assets and connect to a larger marketing plan for the City of Utica.

Bagg’s Square (June 2014) - 30 interviews, 516 public survey responses  

Downtown (March, 2015) - 25 interviews, 860 public survey responses 

Brewery District/Varick St. (Nov 2015) - 20 interviews, 500 public survey responses 

INVEST in U

In collaboration with The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc., the R2G Urban Studio is working to establish a public/private investment fund to help leverage transformative capital to preserve Utica’s authenticity. Pledged matching funds from the City, businesses and residents will help put public space improvements and ideas in motion through creative placemaking involving such creations as public art, plantings, street furnishings, lighting, and more.

CODE Green Zoning

R2G Utica submitted a successful NYS NYSERDA Cleaner Greener program application enabling the City to begin a Zoning Ordinance and Map Update incorporating innovative development approaches - with a focus on sustainable design and Smart Growth. The City of Utica contracted with R2G to organize the update’s Steering Committee and to provide necessary community engagement. 

Food and U 2016

The R2G team researched, designed and produced the 2015-2016 Utica Restaurant Guide and helped organize a Restaurant Week (June 2016/June 2017), celebrating the unique and diverse tastes of Utica.

West Utica Youth Empowerment Initiative

A Cornell R2G AmeriCorps Vista organized a Youth Empowerment Initiative providing positive activities for area youth related to healthy food and employing up to forty (40) young adults during the summer of 2016 building on and realizing a priority action of the West2Green neighborhood visioning project. Through the project, youth acted as both community gardeners and neighborhood ambassadors. 

One World Market Carts

The R2G Urban Studio team and a Cornell AmeriCorps Vista worked with the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees and the Mohawk Valley Community College ThINCubator to assist creative entrepreneurs from Utica’s refugee community form a market cooperative as part of an “incubator without walls” initiative.  An entrepreneur program curriculum was developed and market carts were designed and built by the Oneida Square Project for refugee artisans to market their creations at local farmer’s markets, craft shows, Levitt Amp concerts and other special events. 

Housing Action Committee

R2G convened and facilitated the forming of a Utica Housing Action Committee to meet monthly and to be part of the Zombie Properties Initiative. Working together these many entities are developing ways to collaborate and to more innovatively address diverse housing needs, challenges and opportunities throughout Utica.

Reimagining the Arts

R2G’s “One World Utica - Reimagining the Arts” initiative is a marketing strategy designed to strengthen the identity of the City’s cultural assets. With support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), R2G initiated the banner project, supported neighborhood creative placemaking activities, created an arts video and website and redesigned sidewalk kiosks. An Artspace Market Survey was also completed to help gauge the need and interest for Downtown live/work spaces.

The NYSCA-funded campaign highlights Utica as a “One World” city for artists and their industries and a destination for new residents and visitors looking to experience the vibrancy of a creative community.

Somali-Bantu  Farming Project

R2G partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County (CCE), Utica Greens, Oneida Public Market and MAMI Interpreters to help the Utica Somali Bantu Community start a new business entity in an effort to become self-sustaining within their deeply-rooted historic and agricultural background and improve the supply and quality of food in urban, poverty-stricken areas. Project components include: toolkit for agricultural business management, value-added product retail source guide, land acquisition for a 2-year CSA trial initiative, research documenting how to enhance the business plan in seeking grants.

Bagg’s Square Wayfinding and Identity

As a next step, following completion of the Cornell R2G facilitated Bagg’s Square visioning plan, R2G worked with the Bagg’s Square Neighborhood Association to undertake streetscape improvements to enhance wayfinding and neighborhood. With $10,000 from The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc. and a $250,000 National Grid Urban Corridor grant, R2G spearheaded and coordinated creation of an historical timeline mural, restoration of Bagg’s Square entranceway mural and new underpass murals; the design and installation of locally-produced custom bike racks and litter receptacles; unique pole banners; extensive electrical work in Bagg Commemorate Park; ornamental lighting; custom-designed wayfinding signage; and new historic benches at Union Station.