Last summer, the Sabres new logo was all talk of the town-and not in a good way. The new jerseys have little to no resemblance of the originals that so many begged for. It caused quite the stir and although it seriously means nothing in the grand scheme of life, it was dissapointing to see no traces to the original crest.

But in Washington DC, a place that doesn’t particularly care for sports, and some might say even HATE hockey, their hockey team has unveiled new uniforms that reconnect the fans and the franchise to its past in 21st century style. For an area that doesn’t particularly care for the sport or the team, there was a lot more care and respect for the past than the Sabres put into their new jerseys.

A city so devoted to its past got a futuristic uniform for their beloved team while an apathetic city got a thoughtful modernization of a uniform for a team few care for. Funny how the world works.

We can see the progress going on with the Frank Lloyd Wright boathouse on the waterfront. I don’t know about you but I find it a little eerie…surreal even..to see a Frank Lloyd Wright building…under construction…in 2007. The classic Wright design elements emerging on a day by day basis in a very different Buffalo from what Wright saw and worked with.

Its great that Buffalo has a solild FLW portfolio and its interesting that we have an emerging one (Blue Sky Masoleum 2002, West Side Row House, Gas Station) in the 21st century. It will make Buffalo a more interesting place to visit and will give Buffalonians a couple more things to be proud of but it raises some interesting issues (some I already addressed in a comment on BrO)…

The Blue Sky Masoleum was designed specifically for the Martin Family. Would Wright have designed it the same way if he knew it would not even hold one Martin family member but random people who have no affiliation with the family but good money to put down for a place for eternal rest?

The West Side Row Club row house was designed as a row house for the University of Wisconson. Wouldn’t Wright have designed a Buffalo row house differently?

Although modernists were known for building stuff that could be plopped on any land parcel regardless of history or location, I think Frank Lloyd Wright-being the perfectionist he was- would have taken the surroundings into serious consideration for how his final product looked.

Lets not forget how we mourn the loss of the Larkin Administration Building. It was almost as important as the Guaranty Building. Does that mean we should rebuild it?

Buffalo more and more is in love with its past and either terrified or doubtful about its’ future (see: Sabres new logo, Gates Circle, Elmwood Hotel, Inner Harbor project, etc) And if you don’t belive me, look no further than our obsession with Frank Lloyd Wright. These new Wright structures in a way admit that we can do no better than what we had and instead of evolving, we go back to the past to find new achievements. A rebuild of the Larkin building would make Buffalonians feel as if they went back in time and made up for their grave mistake and even erasing that mistake.

Buffalo is in the 21st century wether some like it or not, and although in one way I do think its pretty cool to see even more FLW buildings than we already have, I think it symbolizes our love and yearning for the past. By preserving what we have, we can show everyone from out of town that we once were great and have a unique built environment that is hard to find elsewhere in America. But by being afraid of new architecture we tell ourselves that the past is the best we’ll ever do.

The new HealthNow HQ’s in downtown Buffalo is a couple months away from opening up. In yesterday’s Buffalo News a brief article was written about the preservation and restoration of the old Gas Works facade. I found two opposite ends of the discussion to be amusing and distant from the truth…

“I think people will be poking fun at it for decades to come,” Cynthia Van Ness, of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County and the Buffalo Preservation Board

And then the opposite (and crazier one)…

The project’s architect, Steven R. Risting of Indianapolisbased CSO Schenkel Shultz, predicts the building will eventually take its place alongside Buffalo’s architectural gems. Risting noted that earlier buildings that were initially considered “too bold, too modern” are now considered local landmarks.

I guarantee that the juxtaposition of the 8-story glass facade with the old Gas Works one will be a local icon. The rest of it is just a large, generic suburban building you could see anywhere. It will never be too bold or too modern. Jesus. But it will be far from being something that the locals will make fun of…not as long as downtown is 50% surface parking and not as long as we have an inventory of ugly suburban style buildings all around our downtown already.

BONUS MATERIAL:
Live WebCam of the construction of the building.
The architectual firm behind the building (Ranked 9th in Prison design!)

The casino issue could become another eternal Buffalo punchline if certain things play out.

In today’s Buffalo News article about the finished casino, Pantano says that the SGC wants to employ 1,000 people and build a permanent facility “eventually.” Kind of like when the SGC said they’d consider keeping the H-O Oats grain elevator up (which was purely just to shut up preservationists and no other reason). Not to say that the Senecas aren’t good for their word *ahem* but that quote just screams out that the new blue-truck depot-looking- thing is going to be there for an extremely, extremely long time. And thats if the Seneca’s are even allowed to put slots in.

If not, then we’ll have that blue thing there anyways, for god knows how long. Why would the Senecas want to spend money on taking down the thing? Its not like they contractually obliged to do anything really.

Paladino said in a BrO interview that the Senecas don’t even want to be downtown, they have to according to the compact.

Will the Seneca’s be allowed to put a casino in Cheektowaga instead? If so, we’ll look back and regret not being able cash in on the money we could have recieved and the potential extra activity around the post-apocalyptic-looking cobblestone district. In fact, imagine a synergy created from the casino, to the Savarino Cobblestone Project, to the HSBC Arena, to Canal Side and you have yourself a potential 24/7 area.

In my opinion a casino in dowtown Buffalo is a wash. Some good coming with an equal amount of bad. But if you’re gonna have a casino, you might as well have a good one and it looks like that will not be the case unless the Senecas are 1. allowed to open for business and 2. follow up on their plans for a permanent facility.

Look forward to adding “downtown casino” to “main place mall”, “metro rail”, “adelphia tower”, “wide right”, “peace bridge”, “no goal”, etc etc etc…

Thats what one of my planning professors, Robert Shibley always says when he talks about what is going on in Buffalo. Look at this list of 3 billion dollars worth of projects and you might not feel so gloomy about our city’s future.

CURRENT CITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS 2006

1 Cobblestone Lofts Office: 26 Mississippi Street-Mixed-Use: renovation - office C 3,500,000$ 2 Lofts at Cobblestone: 30-50 Mississippi: renovation, mixed-use retail & residential; 36 units UC 12,500,000$
3 New Era Headquarters, 160 Delaware Ave. C 10,000,000$
4 285 Delaware Avenue, Uniland Development-New Office building UC 12,000,000$ 5 50 Court Street , new office building AP 40,000,000$
6 Cobey Inc., new manufacturing facility; Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park; 1 Ship Canal Pkwy. C 10,000,000$
7 HealthNow Headquarters, 457 W. Genesee St.; new construction, office UC 110,000,000$ 8 Bass Pro Outdoor World Store PL 60,000,000$
9 IS Lofts Downtown Housing, 362 Oak Street, 24 units, reconstruction) C 5,000,000$ 10 Artspace, 1219 Main Street, reconstruction, 60 apts. UC 17,500,000$
11 Granite Works; 844-864 Main Street, mixed-use project, reconstruction C 8,000,000$ 12 Waterfront Village Housing Project; new construction AP 32,000,000$
13 Lenox Hotel Renovation; reconstruction PL 5,000,000$
14 Pierce Building, 653 Main Street; reconstruction C 500,000$
15 Sodexho Laundry, 60 Grider Street (Curtiss Wright) C 2,700,000$
16 Glenny Drive/Kensington Heights Retirement Community PR 80,000,000$
17 AIDS Community Services, Elmwood Avenue project PR 7,000,000$
18 Hydro-Air Company, 100 Abby St., new manufacturing facility SC 7,500,000$
19 Delaware & Linden Retail Plaza (Tim Horton’s, IHOP, Credit Union; 2240-2300 Delaware) UC 5,500,000$
20 504 Elmwood Avenue in-fill mixed-use project; 9 apartments, 3,000 sf retail C 3,000,000$ 21 504 Washington Street, conversion/renovation; residential, 6 dwelling units UC 1,000,000$ 22 Guaranty Bldg, 30 Church Street; renovations UC 12,000,000$
23 Desiderios Food Warehouse, 530 Bailey Ave., new construction-warehouse & office expansion UC 2,100,000$
24 New Office Building, 227 Niagara Street C 550,000$
25 Senior Apt with parking, 257 Virginia Street PL 2,000,000$
26 Webb Bldg., 92 Pearl Street; conversion/reconstruction, mixed-use w/ 32 residential units UC 9,200,000$
27 Human Service Facility, 1924 Bailey Ave PL 1,500,000$
28 Paper Recycling Bldg, 12 Metcalf PL 570,000$
29 Loft Conversion, 686 Main Street (Birzon Building); renovation, mixed-use PL 1,500,000$ 30 Plaza Expansion, 2635 Delaware Ave (Plaza Group) UC 750,000$
31 First Niagara Bank buildout, 726 Exchange C 578,430$
32 Tops renovation, 2101 Elmwood Ave. C 650,000$
33 Medical Bldg, Building C, 100 High Street UC 980,000$
34 Union Hall, CWA Local 1133, 821 Elk Street UC 700,000$
35 WNY Medical Arts Bldg. Phase I; new construction, Medical Office, 700 Michigan Ave. C 2,000,000$
36 Electric Tower, Phase I Tenant Build Out, 20 East Huron/535 Washington St. C 800,000$ 37 Electric Tower, 20 E. Huron/535 Washington Street, office; renovation PL 10,500,000$ 38 Masonry Addition, 1 Bud Mil AP 1,375,000$
39 Holling Place Apartments; 499 Washington, Conversion/Reconstruction, 82 units C 2,500,000$
40 937 Broadway, Reconstruction, 43 units AP 2,250,000$
41 100 Seneca Street, renovation for NYSDOT C 2,489,000$
42 St. John Phase I (Fruitbelt), 10 units new housing construction UC 1,506,880$
43 St. John Phase II (Fruitbelt), 10 new housing construction PL 2,200,000$
44 St. John Townhomes, 28 units, new construction PR 6,000,000$
45 Bethel Phases I-II; 18 new housing construction (Ada & Elsie Streets) UC 2,525,000$ 46 HoZo-New Opportunities; 19 new housing construction (Kane, Camp & Davis Streets) UC 3,050,000$
47 East Side Opportunities; 30 units new housing construction (Dodge Street) UC 6,000,000$ 48 Sycamore Village; 48 units, new housing construction (Kang, Kemp & Davis Streets) PL 7,200,000$
49 The Packard Building, Main & Riley UC 8,932,000$
50 Shoreline Apartments, housing renovation PL 10,700,000$
51 Statler Building Renovation, 107 Delaware Ave.; mixed-use: hotel, office, housing PR 80,000,000$
52 Old Metroplex Renovation, 723 Main Street SC 1,500,000$
53 Warehouse Lofts (Seneca Paper), 210 Ellicott Street, renovation/conversion, housing - 30 units UC 7,600,000$
54 Phoenix House-564 Delaware Avenue (Moscati), renovation UC 1,040,000$
55 599 Delaware Avenue (FDA Building), renovation, R&D Facility C 2,500,000$
56 RiverWright Ethanol Plant PL 80,000,000$
57 Greystone Apartments, 24 Johnson Park; conversion, residential; 33 units UC 7,000,000$ 58 AM&A’s Redevelopment, renovation, mixed-use PR 60,000,000$
59 Ellicott Commons, 465 Ellicott; residential; new construction; 30 units UC 4,300,000$ 60 Dulski Office Building; Mixed-use office and residential PL 19,240,000$
61 33 Gates Circle Condominiums PR 40,000,000$
62 Courtyard Mall, 450-460 Main St.; renovation/conversion; mixed-use ofc. & res. UC 5,500,000$
63 878 Main Street, Zeptometrix; renovation; corporate offices PL 500,000$
64 Center for Transportation Excellence; 401 E. Amherst Street PL 3,000,000$
65 Rigidized Metals expansion; 658 Ohio St.; 20,000 sf addition, manufacturing. AP 1,750,000$ 66 WNY Medical Arts Bldg. Phase II; new construction, Medical Office, 700 Michigan Ave. UC 3,500,000$
67 Elmwood Village Charter School, 124 Elmwood Ave.; rehab-school C 2,300,000$ 68 112 Genesee Street; conversion/renovation: residential; cost TBD PR -$
69 BSC Tower; S. Elmwood Ave.; new construction; Mixed-use: Office, hotel and residential PR 361,000,000$
70 Tacoma Lofts, 618 Tacoma Ave.; conversion/renovation; 13 apartments C 1,175,000$ 71 The Apartments at 1040 Delaware Avenue; conversion/renovation to 45 apartments UC 1,200,000$
72 North Street Y Senior Apartments, 245 North St.; conversion/renovation; 63 senior apartments UC 3,500,000$
73 Genesee Village, 99-107 Genesee; renovation, mixed-use; costs TBD PR -$ 74 Colvin Housing Project; former Railroad ROW; 132 building lots; Total cost TBD PL -$ 75 567 Exchange St., renovation/conversion-artists studios; cost TBD UC -$ 76 166 Church Street; new office building PL 11,000,000$
77 23 North Street, conversion/renovation w/ new construction; mixed-use w/ 30 apartments; cost TBD PL -$
78 36 Broadway, Buehl Block Building, renovation, mixed-use; 5 res. Units C 1,000,000$ 79 Lofts at Elk Terminal, 250 Perry Street; Phase 3; renovation/conversions, 20 new units UC 2,000,000$ Subtotal 1,236,411,310$

PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS AND NON-TAXABLE
80 Federal Courthouse AP 130,000,000$
81 Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino and parking- est. PL 125,000,000$
82 Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino Hotel- est. PR -$
83 Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino Office Tower-est… PR -$
84 UB Center of Excellence C 61,000,000$
85 Roswell Park Research Facility C 61,000,000$
86 BNMC-Medical Campus Infrastructure improvements & Allen Street extension PL 11,400,000$
87 Erie Canal Harbor Project and new Naval Museum UC 50,000,000$
88 Erie Community College-Downtown PR 90,000,000$
89 Darwin Martin House and associated projects; renovation and new construction UC 35,000,000$
90 Frank Lloyd Wright Boat House UC 5,400,000$
91 Frank Lloyd Wright Gas Station & Pierce-Arrow Transportation Museum PR 10,000,000$ 92 Michigan St Church/Nash H/ Colored Musicians total PR 1,000,000$
93 UB Education Opportunity Center (EOC) PL 25,000,000$
94 Cornerstone Manor (150 E. North at Michigan, 122 units, new construction) C 10,688,133$ 95 St. John Baptist Hospice House PL 2,600,000$
96 Joint Schools Construction, Phase I (9 schools) UC 173,500,000$
97 Joint Schools Construction, Phase II (13 schools) PL 327,000,000$
98 Joint Schools Construction, Phase III (9 schools) PR 375,000,000$
99 Living Opportunities of DePaul (Group Home, 75 units; new construction; Seneca & Elk) PL 805,014$
100 BMHA Lakeview 3A2; 6 housing units for rent; new construction UC 1,159,304$ 101 AD Price, rehab 170 existing units; new construction of 48 rental housing units (Jefferson near William) PL 40,000,000$
102 H.H. Richardson Complex PR 54,000,000$
103 Richardson Architecture Museum PR 24,000,000$
104 Burchfield Penny Art Museum UC 22,000,000$
105 Shea’s Theater Renovations PL 700,000$
106 Cars Sharing Main Street, Federal & State PL 14,000,000$
107 Southtown Connector-Fuhrmann Blvd. reconstruction AP 32,000,000$
108 Buffalo State College Technology Center PL 40,000,000$
109 Canisius College Interdisciplinary Science Center PL 45,000,000$
110 Mount Mercy Academy Renovations UC 400,000$
111 Sisters’ Hospital, 2157 Main Street, renovations UC 2,138,000$
112 Dick Smith Teaching Pavilion at Great Lakes Center (Cotter Point) C 240,000$ 113 Union Ship Canal Park at Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park AP 8,000,000$
114 Tow Path Park (Hertel Avenue) PL 826,000$
115 Scajaquada Pathway, Phase I - bicycle and pedestrian trail SC 1,700,000$
116 Inner Harbor Parking Facility PL 16,300,000$
117 Erie Canal & Great Lakes Museum at the Inner Harbor PR 15,000,000$
118 Outer Harbor Greenbelt - shoreline improvement and linear park UC 14,000,000$ 119 Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park Phase II (north of canal) roads, infrastructure PR 9,000,000$
120 Buffalo Zoo Rainforest Exhibit AP 15,000,000$
121 Ira G. Ross Eye Institute, 1176 Main Street; new construction UC 4,000,000$
122 Niagara Lutheran Retirement Community; E. Delavan & Pleasant Place PR -$ 123 Connecticut Street Armory; 184 Connecticut St.; restoration, window replacement C 2,000,000$
124 Buffalo State College Dining Services/Food Court expansion/renovation PL 7,300,000$

Subtotal 1,863,156,451$ Grand total $3,099,567,761

The Buffalo News reports today on the progress of the new and amazing additions to the Galleria Mall.

I’m curious to know how this affects potential retailers to the “Canal Side” project. In obvious ways, it absorbs the market for retail in the region. At the same time, there are a lot of stores opening here that weren’t in the region before, perhaps opening a possibility to secondary locations and arousing the curiosity of other retailers foreign to Buffalo. An ambitious Benderson, an ambitious City Hall, and bold retailers could make “Canal Side” an even better shopping experience because unlike the new Galleria, we have a REAL urban experience just waiting for them (with a big lake too!).

Tons of Canadians come here on weekends, even downtown (although I’m not sure what they’re doing there for fun)…I’m sure they’d absolutely love to be able to hang around our downtown if we gave them good reason to, a bustiling retail scene at Canal Side would be that reason.

In the short term, I look forward to a two-story Barnes and Noble, an Urban Oufitters, and the other 30 something retailers coming to Cheektowaga. But I look much more forward to the potential that awaits us in a genuine urban shopping experience on our watefront in 3 or so years.

*Photo courtesy FixBuffalo’s flickr page

I was looking through a book of projects done by the architecture firm KPF (an old favorite of mine). I came across a couple pages dedicated to their Goldome project in 1983 I believe.

When I saw the pictures (this being one of them) it looked as if downtown might have been exciting some people. You got your developing “Theatre District” concept, and your underconstruction “Financial District” feeding off one another with the “soon to be completed” metro rail and the conversion of the Genesse Building into a Hyatt. And then don’t forget the new downtown baseball stadium.

All of that has the makings of some pretty exciting times for fans of any downtown.

But then…yeeeeeeahhh.

So tell me…all these new lofts, proposed office buildings, waterfront shopping, and whatever else we’re experiencing now. When you see them completed or hear about the plans, is your excitement parallel to, more than, or less than the excitement that was felt during the 80’s?

What made the 80’s redevelopment not flow into the 90’s? What is different about it this time around?

I always see these when I leave my classes in Clemens Hall in Amherst. They remind me of grain elevators and I think they might serve a ventilation purpose. But I do not know the reason for their function or design.

A slightly obvious but interesting article in the Buffalo News about how houses near Metro Rail stations in Buffalo add value because of their proximity to the stations.

Although many of the underground stations here don’t seem to be next to desirable places, most thriving regions can revitalize struggling neighborhoods with transit-oriented development. I can’t tell you how many different places have sprung up in the DC area in the last decade due to their proximity next to Metro. In fact, many new development ads juxtapose the Metro station with their condo or apartment building in pictures for their advertisements.

Buffalo is still a car dependent region, but its light rail also has pretty good ridership for the limited land it covers.

It has been shown that although the total number of people living in the city of Buffalo reduces each year, the number of commutes from the city to the suburbs for work increases. It is extremely inconvenient say, for a low-wage-earning man living in South Buffalo, to take a job on Grand Island without owning a car. Limiting peoples options in a stagnant economy…not good.

Strategically placed stations by UB, and the larger corporate parks in Amherst can create good opportunities for housing in the city to become more valuable, and with a more desirable housing stock, comes a better city…but Amherst is the only town in Buffalo-Niagara that has not signed off on having NFTA right-of-ways (Amherst corridor has been calculated to be the only profitable expansion line).

In the perfect world, the Metro Rail would extend out to the Airport, UB North, and Niagara Falls on three separate lines, creating a system that connects and increases tourists, students, workers, and urban dwellers together on a rail system that can excite Buffalonians and accelerate its’ growth.

Apparently WNYmedia being down means good things for downtown because during our near two-week hiatus there was an absolute whirlwind of news (at least for Buffalo standards). So let’s try to re-cap…

1. AM&As’: Paladino and Ciminelli say “Let’s demolish it!”. Fakiris says “What?! I was in Europe! Its not supposed to be for sale”. So the project is still supposed to happen…supposed to.

2. Gates Circle: Old people/old money come to City Hall with bigshot local lawyer to explain why evolution is bad. More debate for the next 10-15 years.

3. City Tower: S. Elmwood/Mohwak lot purchased! One step closer to reality. Alleged that local company wants 300,000 sq.ft of it for them.

4. Statler: Renovations underway, looking for Hotel operator.

5. Federal Courthouse: 120 Delaware purchased by Feds…now all the land they need has been obtained. Demo to begin once some “architectual features” are preserved.

6. Hyatt (Genesee Bldg): Gonna be renovated into a higher-quality, 21st century hotel. About half of the funding coming from the state (5mil). Obviously after seeing the “Dragon Express” fix their broken window they knew they had to match ‘em

7. Dulski Building: New facelift revealed. Mix-use quite similar to the goals of City Tower. Sounds dependent on state funding for brownfield clean-up first.

8. DUNKIN DONUTS: Work being done on 598 Main (corner of main and chippewa). VERY excited to see some 1st floor retail on Main.

I think I got it all. I didn’t think I’d ever have a hard time keeping up with whats going on Downtown, but that can only be good.