As Capital Region communities increasingly devote resources to downtown revitalization and other economic development projects, local architecture firms are taking a leadership role in getting projects off the drawing board, under construction and completed.

At Synthesis LLP in downtown Schenectady, the firm's initial interest in the city's revitalization was partly a matter of self-preservation, said John Senisi, AIA, a principal architect of the firm.

When Synthesis opened 14 years ago, Schenectady had not yet begun its current wave of revitalization. Senisi realized that if Schenectady was to become the vibrant, attractive city that he believed it could be, he was going to have to find ways to share his vision with the other business leaders, politicians and developers who could make change happen.

The firm started its close relationship with Schenectady planners and developers by donating its services to design the Central Park pavilion in 1992. Since then the firm has had a hand in many of the city's revitalization projects, including the redesigns of State Street and the Jay Street pedestrian mall, and the design of the State Department of Transportation Regional Headquarters currently under construction at the corner of Broadway and State Street [Opened - March 2003].

The firm works for free on two or three projects a year on average, and the pro bono work pays off in good will and increased visibility, Senisi said.

Senisi isn't primarily driven by a profit motive, said John Samatulski, executive director of the Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corp., a business improvement district focusing on beautification, maintenance, business development, networking and marketing. Senisi, who is the BID's board president, is motivated by his vision of what good urban design can accomplish.

"This is the kind of work they want to be doing," Samatulski said.

New York State Department of Transportation Headquarters on State Street