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Board reviews Barnes Mansion parking and landscape plan; encourages restoration of original gardens
Summary
The board reviewed a minor site plan (02/2025) for the Barnes Mansion at 930 James Street to pave and regrade a gravel parking area, add green infrastructure and replace a rear CMU retaining wall with a stone wall; the board supported the project and asked for a coordinated garden plan to restore original planting patterns.
The Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board reviewed a minor site plan application on March 13 for site work at the Barnes Mansion (930 James Street) that would repave a gravel parking area, add green infrastructure and restore portions of the original garden footprint.
Terri Horst of Terri Horst Landscape Architecture presented the plan with Kathy Comer of Barnes Matrix. The proposal calls for repaving existing gravel parking with asphalt, regrading the lot to align with the mansion’s front façade (in response to current zoning requirements), installing green-infrastructure measures funded through an existing grant, constructing a new accessible ramp to the kitchen portico (grant-funded) and replacing a rear concrete-block (CMU) retaining wall with a stacked limestone (ready-rock) wall to improve aesthetics.
Horst said the project will retain roughly 86 parking spaces including accessible stalls, add sidewalks and crosswalks, and reconfigure lighting—moving existing pole lights and adding decorative bollard lighting near a curved wall and the gazebo. She said the team will coordinate with Randy Crawford, who is working on the accessible ramp design.
Board members asked about restoring the original gardens along the street frontage and perimeter; Horst said the team plans to reconstruct garden elements that replicate the historic 1936 plan and will return with a detailed planting plan from consultant ESF. The board also discussed lighting height and placement; staff and the applicant noted that decorative low bollard fixtures will be used on the curved wall but conventional pole lighting will provide illumination for the main parking field to ensure safety and maintain plow visibility.
The board offered comments and suggestions and expressed broad support for the project, asking the applicant to return with a planting plan that reflects historic garden patterns for the front perimeter and to provide a plant list that addresses screening and long-term landscape maintenance. No formal board vote was recorded on this item; the board’s role for this application was advisory to zoning and to the applicant’s site-plan review process.
