No birds were harmed during the making of this post
The well recieved Christian Menn design for the new Peace Bridge is a no-go. All thanks to a rare species of bird that could never evolve enough to adjust to the existence of this bridge apparently.
So instead we will have a simplistic, slightly boring design by an engineering firm from Florida. Its nice that it is white, and the arches are a polite bow to the old bridge it runs by. Not a bad design…just kind of boring.
Menn’s design has been repeated everywhere nowadays and although elegant, graceful, and powerfully inspiring-eventually the concept gets tired (see Mies Van Der Rohe’s black skyscraper concept).
Basically its at the point where no one believes this project is ever going to happen so it doesn’t matter what it looks like.
The design is the least of the battles ahead…lawsuits galore coming from whichever section of the lower west side gets destroyed by its construction.
The Outer Harbor’s time?
Buffalo has always had some curious development proposals-specifically ones on the waterfront. 50 story towers, 40 story towers, multiple large towers forming a new city on the outer harbor, and I’m sure there are more.
There’s a new one that I called BS on as soon as it was announced but the more time progresses the more it looks as if it is actually real. The Freezer Queen rehab project is closer to a reality and the developers have some serious ideas up their sleeves.
One issue is to whether or not that absorbs a lot of the demand for condos in the downtown area since it is such a huge facility (a reason why the city did not want the Trico plant to go condo). Although it is a rehab in the city-its not downtown and there is a decent demographic of people who feel the urge to live in the CBD and this facility wouldn’t do it for them. I’m curious to see what types of people will in fact live in Freezer Queen…I’m thinking middle aged empty nesters mostly.
Forget downtown, will this rehab create any spinoff for the surrounding areas? There is a very likely possibility that Freezer Queen would remain a stand alone island of high end living.
The outer harbor is the way it is for a reason. Absolutely pathetic connectivity to the CBD/Inner Harbor area for every mode of transport would be the most important reason. The new Rt5 design should help that to an extent but I would be hesitant until the rt5 project is done. With a well developed Inner Harbor (couple years away), better road connectivity (coming soon), along with a pedestrian/light rail bridge the Outer Harbor will be as valuable as a waterfront property should.
Perhaps the cheesy post-modern glass facilities in the rendering won’t get built but it looks like the Freezer Queen really will become condos in a couple years.
Burchfield-Penney 4.19.08
The Burchfield-Penney Museum is coming along with mixed results. The sides facing Buff State look really sleek, great materials and some nice accents.
But then urban epic fail with the Elmwood side as many people have already said. Should be a good addition to the community and should help push Buffalo as a low key, high brow type place to visit.
Canal Side Landscaping 4.14.08
The ‘Central Wharf’ area which was once pinned to be the site of Bass Pro about a year ago is seeing its use as a large boardwalk/wooden wharf type place come to fruition.
Its taken forever to get to this point for no apparent reason but it appears that since they’re 100% done with the Commercial Slip and west side of the project that they can start working this part at a fast rate in time for the a decent amount of summer.
I never realize just how large this project is until I’m at Main Street by the arena looking straight towards the water…far, far away.
Even if the retail is slow to come (which will probably be the case) Canal Side will serve as probably the most unique public space in the region-and a very tranquil, relaxing one at that.
In other news…the Aud is surrounded by poles suggesting that some serious gutting is about to get underway
For the downtown fashion fiends
As part of the 500 block renovation process by Rocco Termini the few remaining signs of life on it were forced to close.
But then the financing fell through and now life is back on the 500 block. Most importantly, JP’s Fashions is up and running again selling all the finest fashions.
Perhaps the most depressing building on all of Main Street, selling perhaps the worst clothes-I’ve always had a special place in my heart for this store and apparently it shall live on for years to come.
Paula Polinski must be happy though…
Buffalo’s finest
Always enjoy the WGRZ comment forums. No snobs who love culture or gentrification here. Just good old uneducated angry cliche Buffalonians.
Here are some highlights:
So Bourdain might come to Buffalo to film a show…
Buffalo is not an attrative city at all, i would be ashamed to show anyone our city. there is nothing good to look at in buffalo except the black idots going around killing other innocent people. I sure will not vote for buffalo to be on any show.
And ridership has gone up 8% for the NFTA…
I will poop on anyone that rides metro!
Sheer awesomeness. Remember to check up daily on WGRZ.com to remind yourself that these people exist in fairly large numbers up here.
Buffalo in the future
I just started reading a new book called “The Endless City”, a great book that I’ll probably bring into future posts.
The concept of Buffalo being able to feed off the growth of NYC or Chicago or Toronto due to the centrality of our location has long been held by many but it has for the most part failed to deliver. Buffalo isn’t the only city that has failed at this-Cleveland and Pittsburgh bank on their location in relation to stronger, more global cities yet cannot get much from it.
In the book it has a similar story with similar cities in England. When companies want to come to London but can’t they don’t settle for Manchester or Liverpool or Birmingham. They go to Frankfurt or Paris or Shanghai. This isn’t a theory-the proof is in the tax base. The book continues to add that if England emphasized infrastructure improvements in places like Manchester as a 2nd best choice to starting up shop in London it would just entice the company to go to Frankfurt. Perhaps if that infrastructure money was spent in London, said hypothetical company would have been more enticed.
So what does that hold for Buffalo? If a company wants to go to Toronto and can’t-they’ll go to Montreal or New York or Chicago. Why would a company with the capital and allure go to a 2nd rate rust belt city? Heck, if they had to settle for rust belt they’d go to Cleveland or Pittsburgh because the Economist says they are two of the best 50 cities in the world to live in.
At the same time, cities are becoming more grouped together as mega-regions. Tor-Buf-Chester is cited in this book as the 4th biggest mega-region in North America (and also includes Ottawa and Montreal which is new to me). This is clearly a marketable asset for Buffalo if used right but another important asset in economic development in the 21st century is making sure you have the cultural toys to entice these companies-Pittsburgh and Cleveland do a better job with that but are basically prettier versions of Buffalo with the same ugly problems.
You could apply this theory to what HSBC has done to its’ Buffalo operations. HSBC has moved all their executives to NYC for the 1st time and has moved many operations to Chicago (another global city)-hinting that perhaps Buffalo could lose a significant amount of what remains of HSBC (besides, how can you court new bank executives when you’d be sticking them in Buffalo?).
But to create the cultural toys you have to spend tax money-and Buffalo is doing that. The Martin House, the Richardson Complex, Canal Side, Burchfield-Penney and so on. At the same time these assets add a tax burden, making it harder to entice businesses. An endless cycle of frustration for those who care.
For the 1st time in generations local leadership is showing signs that it wants to be with the times in accordance to how the local economy should be structured. Manufacturing is about 11% of the local economy now and leaders are not waiting for big industry to magically come back anymore but have done a decent job getting light manufacturing to come into and grow in the city (Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park has been a success story).
A large investment in creating new energy (8 windmills in Lackawanna are a start), heavier investment in the medical campus, and encouraging large growth of local colleges-especially UB will be key. A downtown campus that flows in with a growing Medical Campus can create a contemporary and cutting edge intellectual center that can serve as the cradle for Buffalo’s future as a city of importance in the new knowledge based/white collar economy.
But then again, as it says in “The Endless City”:
The sad truth is that city after city is expending enormous energy chasing the tantalizing prize of biotech, when we know that only 10 or so metropolitan areas really have a shot at agglomeration economies that will make a discernible difference in the creation of jobs and fiscal vitality
Back end operations might expand here and there but expecting legitimate overflow from surrounding global cities is unrealistic-and we have years of proof.
Creating new energy, new science, and new intellectuals is the key to the core of our economy and spending money on our historical assets will help set us apart from new places that serve as our competition.
In the end it might all be worthless. Perhaps Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Buffalo are all just relics of the past. Perhaps Shanghai, Dubai and Delhi await similar fates 100 years from now as well.
But as of now it seems like these are the only legitimate chances we have of ever becoming a respected metropolitan region in the global scene. Creativity is what made Buffalo a successful place to begin with-creativity is what can take Buffalo out of its own slide to a place below mediocrity in the eyes of national and international business.
