Green infrastructure in Onondaga County, NY.

Onondaga County is located in the Upstate New York in the center of the state. A number of urban revitalisation initiatives have been rolled out in the capital city of Syracuse, most of them aimed at nursing the local natural resource, Onondaga Lake back to health.



Onondaga Commons, working closely with the city of Syracuse, Onondaga County and assisted by W. Michael Short from Short Enterprises, is pursuing a major environmental redevelopment, to revitalise Onondaga Lake, sadly famous for being one of the most polluted lakes in the United States.





This delightful area was first overexploited for the production of salt, then replaced by industry and large populations. But now the turning point has come, and the plan is not only to make the l'Onondaga Lake Park (known as the “Central Park of Central New York” and much loved by locals) a more valued community resource, but also to clean up the quality of the lake water.



A significant step towards this clean up process is to recover rainwater in the lake areas with targeted green infrastructure solutions, which can recover more than 37 million litres of water, thanks to the project "Save the Rain",



Onondaga Commons is a great example of what can happen when public-private partnerships work together to create sustainable urban development that sees the environment as a precious resource.

Project: Onondaga Commons with Short Enterprises
Location: Syracuse, NY, USA
Year: 2013
Images: Courtesy of Short Enterprises
Links for further information: Save the Rain Program Update, Sewer Overflow explained, Clinton Storage Faciity