In an inner city neighborhood on the western edge of the campus, bounded and isolated by an elevated interstate and an elevated rail line, the Syracuse University Energy Plant had for many years presented itself as fenced off, hulking, and impenetrable. The new complex produces cleaner and more efficient energy through cogeneration and transforms the plant into an amenity for both University and local residents. The architecture of the perimeter is a light, minimal structure. Fed by waste heat and water from energy production, polycarbonate greenhouses hover above the metal-clad surface of the power plant itself. On the ground floor, a green market space can fully open to the street and windows along the main façade offer glimpses of the power plant’s operations. At the upper level, the glass prism of the community room allows views into the power plant and out to the greenhouse and roof garden. A teaching kitchen, a seasonal roof garden, and a multi-use community room activate the building during the day and year-round. Beyond the new buildings, obsolete brick and metal-clad buildings are reskinned or restored and repurposed, their ground floors retained for storage and maintenance, and their upper levels colonized by green laboratories and growing spaces. By 2040 when Syracuse University aims to complete its ambitious sustainability plan, the plant will have become a neighborhood asset, ringed by a simple greenhouse, green laboratories, robust landscape, and public spaces in which power plant workers, students, and the local community work, meet, mingle, learn, garden, cook, and eat. From the street and the highway, the green perimeter will serve as a beacon and symbol of the University’s commitment to sustainability. (Competition Winner)