I’m Christian Freeman, a landscape architect who grew up in Liverpool, currently living in the City of Syracuse. Upon selecting the poem, I was drawn to this piece that hints at Syracuse’s strong food culture. I immediately thought of my favorite downtown carb purveyors: Harrison Bakery; Glazed & Confused; Peace, Love and Cupcakes; Cake Bar; and Columbus Bakery.

I also recalled there was an old Syracuse Bread Factory, a project that may someday house apartments within its brick walls like the Dietz or Camillus Mills adaptive reuse endeavors. The potential of the Bread Factory, along with our city’s current development climate inspired me to utilize a futurism style that shows heritage along with growth, adaptation, and optimism for what is next.

I used elements from the Syracuse streetscape to depict not a specific space, but a composite look at the city. The overlay of the street on hollow storage filled with wheat barrels nods to our past, while the stacked architecture is meant to show growth and rising opportunity.