The Ithaca Commons is a two-block
pedestrian mall
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...
in the business improvement district known as Downtown Ithaca that serves as the city's cultural and economic center. The Commons is a popular regional destination, and is filled with upscale restaurants and shops, public art, and frequent community festivals.
About
The Commons is shaped like an inverted T. It consists of a two-block segment of State Street between Cayuga and Aurora Streets lined with shops, galleries, restaurants, and bars, and a smaller one-block segment, "Bank Alley," extending north up Tioga Street to Seneca Street, that is home to several banks and financial institutions. Many of the buildings are mixed-use, with apartments or offices on the upper floors.
Tompkins Cortland Community College
Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) is a public community college in Dryden, New York. It is supported by Cortland and Tompkins Counties and has extension sites that are located in Ithaca and Cortland. It is part of the State Universi ...
has a small satellite campus on the Commons.
During the summer, local musicians and other entertainers put on free concerts and performances, including at the
Bernie Milton Pavilion named after local musician
Bernie Milton. The Commons is also used for many political protests, rallies, and speeches.
The Commons hosts several festivals throughout the year, including Ithaca's main annual festival, the
Ithaca Festival in early June.
A scale model of the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
, the
Sagan Planet Walk, begins in the Commons. The Planet Walk is named after famed
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
astronomer
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including e ...
, and stretches 3/4 mile from to the
Sciencenter. The inner ring planets all fit on a short section of Bank Alley.
The two main hubs of
Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT)'s bus network are located adjacent to the Commons.
History

By the 1960s, the rise of car culture, suburbs, and
urban renewal
Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
had severely hurt downtown Ithaca. Many storefronts were empty, and many historic buildings had been torn down and replaced with vacant lots. In 1971, newly elected Mayor Ed Conley, "pulling on a 1950s-era suggestion from a Cornell city planning student",
proposed converting several blocks of State Street into a pedestrian mall. At the time, many small towns in the United States were experimenting with using pedestrian malls to revive downtowns. Formal design began in 1972, under the direction of local architect Anton J. Egner. Construction began in 1974, and the Commons opened in 1975. It cost $1.13 million
The name "The Commons" was the winning entry in a community-wide "name the mall" contest, and a prize of $1,000 in cash and gift certificates went to Ithaca High School senior Bill Ryan who had entered the name after a visit to the Boston Common.
It faced immediate competition, with
the Ithaca area's first mall opening the next year in
Lansing
Lansing () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. It is the sixth-most populous city in Michigan with a popul ...
. In 1981, several vacant lots created by
urban renewal
Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
were filled by the construction of
Center Ithaca, a large mixed-use building with first-floor retail, an indoor food court connected to the Commons, and upper-floor offices and apartments.
Together with the rest of
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...
, the Commons suffered through the 1990s with many empty storefronts. Rothschilds, a local department store, closed in the early 1980s, and its successors, Iszards (the only store outside of the Elmira area) and a
McCurdy's store, closed in the mid-1990s. A
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
and a
CVS also closed on the Commons in the mid-90s, and a block away, a
Woolworths store closed in 1998. Then-Mayor Alan Cohen (owner of a restaurant located on the Commons) proposed removing the Commons and opening up the two-block portion of State Street to automobile traffic.
At the turn of the century, the Commons's fortune began to turn around, due to increased investment and the rise of
New Urbanism
New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating Walkability, walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has ...
. The
Downtown Ithaca Alliance, a
business improvement district
A business improvement district (BID) is a defined area within whichever businesses elect to pay an additional fee (or assessment) in order to fund projects within the district's boundaries. A BID is not a tax, as taxes fund the government. BID f ...
, was created in 1997 to revitalize the Commons and its surroundings. The vacant former
Woolworths was renovated into the new home of the
Tompkins County Public Library in 2000. In 2005,
Seneca Place, a large mixed-use building incorporating retail, a
Hilton Garden Inn, office space for
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
and
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...
, and the Ithaca area's first
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...
opened adjacent to the Commons. Between 2003 and 2015, the
Cayuga Green project replaced several lots of surface parking adjacent to the Commons with a new home for independent movie theatre
Cinemapolis, an
Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) is a multinational lifestyle retail corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operating in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, select Western European countries, Poland, the United Arab Em ...
, two buildings of luxury apartments, and a new multi-level parking garage with first-floor retail. Another luxury apartment building,
Gateway Commons, was completed nearby in 2007.
But the Commons' aging infrastructure started to cause problems. In the late 1990s, an ad hoc city committee formed to discuss the future of the Commons. Their report, "Renewing the Design of the Ithaca Commons: The Report of The Commons Design Review Committee," was released in April 1999, and led to a $127,000 capital project. The project consisted largely of maintenance work, although it also paid for the removal of a large,
brutalist
Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...
fountain that had been turned off for years due to leaky plumbing. The fountain was replaced with a large, open paved area with seating. More temporary repairs were made to the Commons in 2008.
In 2009, the city commissioned landscape architecture firm
Sasaki Associates
Sasaki is a design firm specializing in Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Design, Space Planning, Landscape Architecture, Ecology, Civil Engineering, and Place Branding. The firm is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, but practices on ...
to do a complete redesign, with a more open central lane, "patterned pavement, varied and movable seating, improved performance spaces, energy-efficient lighting, an outdoor reading area and a small playground."
The old Commons was demolished in April 2013. The reconstruction was originally planned to take 18 months and cost $9.5 million. But a series of problems, including a poorly-documented existing conditions, poorly-drawn plans, poor coordination with
NYSEG
New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG) is an electric and gas utility company owned by Avangrid that serves customers in New York. NYSEG was incorporated in 1852 as the Ithaca Gas Light Company. Throughout the end of the 19th century and the e ...
, and mayhem caused by a runaway truck, caused the project to go long over schedule and budget. Many business owners reported dramatically decreased sales and foot traffic.
In August 2015, the Commons re-opened, at a total cost of $15 million.
In 2012, a stainless steel and bronze sculpture of
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
was unveiled at the western end of the Commons.
The sculpture, by Rob Licht, depicts a portrait bust of King with an abstracted image of a waterfall.
The base of the statue is etched with a quotation from King.
In late 2015, construction began on a new, ten-story
Marriott hotel
Marriott Hotels & Resorts is Marriott International's brand of full-service hotels and resorts based in Bethesda, Maryland. As of June 30, 2020, there were 582 hotels and resorts with 205,053 rooms operating under the brand, in addition to 160 h ...
on a vacant triangular lot at the eastern end of the Commons.
The hotel opened in November 2016.
In 2013, a local developer proposed replacing three buildings on the Commons with modern retail spaces, three stories of office space, and an eleven-story apartment tower. The project, named "Harold's Square," would also result in the historic rehabilitation of the 19th-century Sage Block building. The project was expected to be completed in summer 2019, but was still under construction in August 2020, when the developer sued the city in an effort to stop another project in the area, concerned that they would lose revenue due to competition for parking.
In 2022, a building that once housed
Firebrand Books - a building on the Commons, at 143 East State Street - was designated a local historic landmark by the Ithaca Common Council.
Features
*
Sagan Planet Walk
* Bernie Milton Pavilion
*
State Theatre
Annual Events
* Annual Chili Festival (late winter)
*
Ithaca Festival (first weekend of June)
* Bite of Ithaca (late June)
* Apple Harvest Festival (first weekend of October)
* Winter Light Festival (first weekend of December)
* Chowder Cook-Off (December)
* First Friday Gallery Nights (first Friday of each month)
* Summer Concert Series (Thursday evenings during the summer)
References
External links
Downtown Ithaca Alliance Website
{{Ithaca, New York
Commons
The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...
Ithaca Commons
Pedestrian malls in the United States
Tourist attractions in Ithaca, New York