We had a planner from Niagara Falls, NY come to our Buffalo-Niagara By Design class on Monday. Oh my. It makes me feel a whole lot better about the future of Buffalo.
There are some pretty extensive and well intentioned plans in place for the Catarac City but it can very easily be labled as a pipe dream as well.

The Niagara Falls Experience Center, a new Amtrak Station, promenades of upscale restuarants and shopping, new and contemporary housing for cool young people…so on and so forth.
Based on location only-it makes perfect sense that one of the world’s 7 wonders be a successful busy tourist mecca. Sadly, everything is tied up in politics that makes Buffalo City Hall look like something Aristotle had in mind.
The plan as a whole has not been approved (politics) and with a new election coming up, it could continue a long life of not coming to fruition.
For every question asking why things are the way they are in NF, his answer was “politics”.

It really is a crime that Niagara Falls is such a dump. To make matters worse they get a daily slap in the face from Canada who has made it the Vegas of Canada. Although that isn’t the most appealing souding thing to me, it does mean some big $$$.

None of the major projects mentioned during the presentation of the Master Plan are under construction or will be in the neear future but to their credit they have started to make downtown more accessible to the Falls but good God there is a looooooong way to go.

When I walked back to my room from class I kept thinking to myself that Buffalo’s good future is very realistic thanks to its resources, history and existing businesses. Sadly for Niagara Falls, its all a pipe dream, just like it has always been.

As a former Washingtonian, I’m pretty excited to see we landed Dainius Zubrus from the Washington Capitals and a prospect for Novotny and a 1st round pick. Novotny is a good skater and can play hard but lacks much scoring talent. He really struggled adjusting to the AHL at first, improved his numbers, and then struggled in Buffalo. Zubrus is an extremely talented player who I have had the pleasure of meeting more times than I can count since I used to frequent Capitals practices in my younger days. He is going to be a great addition for the playoff push

His stats:
2006-2007 60games 20goals 32 assists 52 points
Carrer 670games 118goals 218assists 352 points

In case you don’t know by now, Marty Biron was part of a three-way deal that sent him to Philly and sent Columbus backup, Ty Conklin, on his way to Buffalo.
Ty had some opportunities to take the starting job with Edmonton last season but couldn’t play well enough to secure it. He did get a taste of some Stanley Cup action in game one last year but did not impress and has fallen off the face of the hockey world since.
Hopefully he can get back to the form he was in before his demise.

Here are his career stats:
This year he is 2-3 with a 3.30 GAA and .871 save percentage (ouch)
In his career he is 29-22-4 with a 2.60 GAA and .901 save percentage

The somewhat controversial pedestrian bridge to connect the acclaimed Hauptman-Woodward building with the equally stunning Bio Informatics building is underway. We’ll see how it affects the look of these two buildings when its done but so far it doesn’t look too bad.

Not too much difference at the commons in terms of its outside appearance since mid-December but it is coming along.

Interesting article/discussion in BRo about the retail incubator that is going to be on the 1st floor of the two new buildings. A lot of the stores are going to face eachother inbetween the two buildings instead of facing Ellicott Street (although there will be plenty of street visibility as well. The concept is taking a lot of heat though. It will be tough to pull off at 1st because there is little foot/car/rodent/anything traffic on Ellicott now but you have to remember that there will also be new residents coming in along with the incubators.
With the Washington Market and new residents on this block the retail should work as long as the product is great.

Do you know anything about life in Buffalo? Well then vote for the “Best of Buffalo” on Artvoice. And don’t be afraid to select me as “Best Blog”

This is the first time I’ve seen the harbor since they put in the pedestrian bridge. Honestly, its beautiful. I love the whole project so much and I can’t wait to see it completed on one of those amazing Buffalo summer evenings…Buffalo is getting the Inner Harbor it deserves.

Well although the Courtyard Mall is still undergoing renovations and doesn’t look open yet, the NYS Office of Parole IS up and running and today I got a great taste of it myself.
I was taking the Light Rail from the Inner Harbor to Theatre Station and when we stopped by “Court” Station, a young man got on, talking on his cell phone saying…

Yeah man, he got caught with the gun AND murder. That’s his third time man…
Nah man I wasn’t there, I was still in jail on my gun charge when he shot the dude…Yeah man, right in the head…

This conversation stayed on the same topic for the next 10minutes until I got off. So umm…hooray for the new NYS Parole Office on Main Street?!

Coming back to Buffalo in 2005, one thing I was pretty excited about was the new infusion of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, decades after his death. The expansive renovation of the Martin House, the construction of the Blue Sky Mausoleum and West Side Rowing House, and plans for a FLW gas station sounded good to me…but not to Frank Lloyd Wright expert and UB Art History professor, Jack Quinan.
The author of the only book out there dedicated completely to the Larkin Administration Building as well as the Martin House, completely disagrees with the notion of new FLW builds, putting a thumbs down and sticking his tongue out when I asked him about it.
Noting that the mausoleum was designed for the Martin family and there are no Martins in it, that the Rowing House was designed for the U. of Wisconson, and the Gas Station won’t even have any gas, he sees it as going against the principles of what FLW would want in his buildings.
And for those of us nostalgic and hopeful of a rebuild of the Larkin Building, Quinan is not one to feel the same. During his lecture earlier this week he said

Whenever I talk about the Larkin Building, people come up to me and say, ‘Oh wouldn’t it be great if they rebuilt the Larkin Building?’….and I say ‘NO! It wouldn’t!’ Its gone, leave it that way.

The loss of the Larkin Building is one of the greatest tragedies in American Architectural history, and I see an authentic rebuild of it to be a way of making up for it.
And to me- Blue Sky, the Row House, and the Gas Station are great for Buffalo. Even if you’re a FLW purist you’re going to be curious and want to come to Buffalo to see how it looks. Leave these blueprints laying around any city in the country and they would do the same thing that Buffalo has…might as well let Buffalo add to its portfolio of buildings from America’s greatest architect.

Why couldn’t CitiCorp come downtown and why are there Empire Zone benefits in Amherst?

All answers are welcome.

Oh but what is not welcome are comments like “you city snobs just can’t ever be happy.” I’m actually very happy about 650 new jobs.

Ever wondered what Buffalo’s tallest building looks like on the inside? Of course you have. I’ve never had the opportunity to go inside and take a gander and after watching the video, I’m moderately impressed.
Although SOM did more than their fare share of uninspiring modernist skyscrapers for its infinite amount of corportate clients, their Buffalo building really lacks more than most on their portfolio during the corporate modernist phase, mostly because One HSBC sticks out on the skyline more than anything else they’ve done in Chicago or NYC or wherever.
The interior though is right on par with any NYC skycraper of the era, very high quality, very 70’s upscale. When you watch the video you see just how many gaping holes there are in downtown out the window. Oy veh.
One last note, Marine Midland Bank decided to have large sculputures in front of their NYC and Buffalo offices. Clearly, NYC got the better sculpture.