Work continues to progress at the NewEra Headquarters on Delaware. Some people were wondering if they were going to perserve the stone-carved eagle on the original facade and the answer is yes. It was taken out carefully and is standing alone. I have no idea what they are going to do with it but based on NewEra’s actions towards Buffalo I don’t see it being discarded.
NewEra has banners on light posts all around the area near its’ HQ’s saying “NewEra fits Buffalo”. I have a borderline-fettish with nice city signage, and their signs (as simple and possibly un-noticeable as they are) add a nice touch to the life around. It’s pretty clear that NewEra is and is going to be a great asset to the community in ways beyond jobs created.

Well I will say this…at least it wasn’t a painful and excruciating loss. We were down early, and we never had any false hopes of a win. I like to be warned in advance of losses so I thank you, Buffalo Bills, for making today’s loss nearly pain-free.

With that said, I expect a swift and thorough kick in the ass to the Detroit Lions next Sunday. Kthxbye.

You read BuffaloRising and pretty much all the Buffalo blogs and you think “Wowzers, Buffalo is moving forward and sunny skies lie ahead for sure!”
But then you read the Buffalo News, like today’s article on the “Brain Drain” and how stagnant our economy is and its just “Ugh. Same ‘ol Buffalo, won’t we ever get better?”

Who do we belive??!? It drives me nuts sometimes. You see the huge list of development projects downtown, you see our job growth outgrew 1/3 of all US cities this year, the Martin House Restoration, and finally Waterfront development. But then you see increasing crime, young people who just can’t wait to leave Buffalo, more and more people fleeing the city if not the region entirely.

All of us bloggers love this city to death, I have yet to see a blogging community on par with Buffalo’s outside of the big cities like LA, Toronto, DC, NYC and Chicago. You all saw the great success of “Old Home Week”. Obviously, people care.

I love this place so much. I want to stay, and unlike others, I’m actually going to TRY to stay. Maybe being away from here for ten years helped me appreciate this place more than most 19 year-old Buffalonians. I don’t know.

If a city is trying its damnest to get better, but no one pays attention…does it actually get better?

Only 79 wins remaining for a perfect season. Buffalo took control early and never lost the lead tonight behind Marty Biron’s solid performance. Ottawa looked pretty flat early and you sense that maybe, just maybe, Ottawa’s run of regular season dominance is no longer.
Some clutch goals, some clutch saves, and pretty much a nice, dull, simple road game played by the Sabres.

3-0

Next game Friday…a mini-vaction of sorts.

The sun was shining in Amherst eary today, and the air was perfect for a good college football game.

But this was a UB football game.

Wow. A quick scoring drive by Ball State followed by a punt block in the endzone and it was 14-0 with 10 minutes left in the 1st quarter.
The UB offense was pathetic against one of the worst defenses in D-1. Only in the 4th did Willy (who threw for over 300 yards) and the rest of the offense move the ball thanks to Ball State going into prevent.

Stupid penalties, missed tackles, and an inept offense. Welcome to 1994-2005.

God speed, Turner Gill, God speed.

Oh but I do have good news, cornerback Gary Rice keeps trying to get my female friend to get in an orgy with him. w00t.

Wow. Seriously, can anyone even explain the feelings after tonights game. Keep in mind of course, that this is game TWO of the season and it feels like we’ve just finished two playoff games.
In typical Buffalo spirit, after the plethora of penalties to accompany a clock outage, random buzzer buzzing, and a 2-goal deficit…many started to leave and many more (myself included) sensed the game was over. Thankfully Briere, Afinogenov, and co. don’t have that Buffalo self-defeatist attitude.
Intense. I mean, I always enjoy home openers more than anyother regular season game but I’ve never been so tense from one before. Most Sabres teams of late would have just rolled over and let Montreal run away with it after the Habs kept the goals coming to accompany the steady flow of penalties against Buffalo. This team is apparently different though. Despite all odds seemingly, we just kept chipping away.

2-0 my friends. A heart-stopping 2-0.

At Ottawa tommorrow. Should see Biron in net.

HealthNow is moving along nicely. The windows are almost all in on the 6-story part of the building and are starting to come in on the huge window wall facing the waterfront. As you see in the last pic, HealthNow is actually putting the “Gas Works” facade to use, connecting the wall out to the facade (although I’ll say its a pretty crappy and boring brown wall with the occasional window along the wall).
I know its a controversial building but I think its an overall win for downtown. We won’t call it an architectural masterpiece ever, but I don’t think we can call it a blunder either. It’s a suburban construction company doing their first urban project and without any public say…based on the circumstances it ain’t that bad.

In today’s Buffalo News there is a piece on the 10 year existence of the Crossroads/Marine Midland/HSBC Arena, focusing on its successes and failures. The article says how it is a great success for the Sabres franchise but has created little spin-off.

While I don’t disagree with that completely there are some projects going on in that area that the Arena’s presence had a role in
1. Lofts @Elk Terminal
2. Savarino HQ’s
3. Cobblestone Lofts (construction to begin soon)
4. Cobblestone Bar
5. New Irish cafe/pub/restaurant (construction to begin soon)

And then we can add the Casino, Bass Pro, Harborfront Market, and a new mixed-use at the current Donovan State Office site.

The Verizon Center in DC changed Chinatown around completley. They even call it the “New Arts District” now. But Buffalo is not DC. Businesses are extremely careful about doing anything in the city. When the arena had its groudbreaking in 1994, downtown was not the most popular place to be. Only in 2004 did things start to get rolling around downtown with the completion of the Lofts @ Elk Terminal.

With a local economy that grows at a painfully slow rate, and the psychological barriers created by anti-downtown stigmas dating back to the 60’s, Downtown Buffalo is growing despite the conditions thrown at it for once. And HSBC is a piece of the puzzle that is helping it along.

Last night felt like last spring all over again. A game 8 of sorts. Except this time we were in blue and gold, and the Canes were rasing banners multiple. The atmosphere was similar, and the game kept going back and forth…and in a not-so-relaxing manner. Like last year, Miller was solid, and Briere was clutch.

Unlike last year…we left Carolina with a W.

I also apologize for my really choppy writing. I’m sick like a dog but feel guilty that I haven’t updated since Sunday.

World renown architect and dean of the school of architecture at Harvard, Toshiko Mori, gave a lecture on UB’s South Campus yesterday. The lecture moslty consisted of her previous works and principles regarding design.

Mori showed a lot of slides from her winning design of the Darwin Martin House Visitor’s Center. And let me tell you…it’s something else. Too many features to bring up but one that particularly stands out is there will be a hologram of the Larkin Administration Building coming from seemingly out of nowhere. There seems to be some good attention in the visitors center given to the Administration Building.

It’s great that Buffalo can add Toshiko Mori to the list of world famous architects that have left their imprint on our city. Kind of just adds to the amount of exciting, GOOD stuff that’s taking place to bring our city back.

Here’s an interesting piece on Mori and Wright from 2003