Artspace II?
Came across some interesting info at the end of this BfloNews article about the opening of the Erie Canal Harbor in reference to Hillary’s visit of her much-championed-for project…
After leaving the Erie Canal Harbor dedication, Clinton got her first look at Artspace Buffalo Lofts, a project she championed and secured critical funding for, since it opened a year ago at 1219 Main St.
Clinton noted the lofts have a waiting list of 424 and attracted artists from 20 states and Canada.
‘I believe if we could replicate this project . . we could have 20 projects like this, we could have hundreds more people moving to downtown Buffalo and being part of the renaissance that’s going on here,’ Clinton said.
As much as I’d love to see an Artspace XX I’m gonna settle for II. Certainly getting downtown going is a major focus but how about Central Terminal?
Residences in the tower and community spaces, art galleries, performance center taking up the remaining parcels of the terminal.
Artists are really the only people who would be willing to and be excited to take a chance on living in such a neighborhood. With their involvement we could see a more stabilized Broadway-Fillmore area.
An expensive project, but one of the few legitimate ideas to truly get the Terminal up and running as a 24/7/365 kind of place again.
Trying out “Dyngus Day”
ROADTRIP!!! Or not. Me and my Polish friend headed over to the Dyngus Day festivites at Central Terminal to get that authentic Polonia experience that we significantly lack on a daily basis. I attempted an awesome skyline photo but as you can tell, the window got in the way.
Soooo many cars at the Terminal. I’ve never seen more than an ambulance stationed there. Even the Padwerski/Memorial traffic circle was super busy. What kind of bizzaro world are we experiencing?
I finally got to get inside the main lobby for the 1st time in my life. When I first stepped in and saw “TO TRAINS” on the wall I felt a bit of a rush being the dork I am. Such an amazing building. Beyond words.
It was a unique event. Some drunken dancing going on, and groups of people gathering around heated areas. I saw the 3rd string weather guy for channel 2. I was staring at him trying to figure out where I knew him from, he caught me staring…it was awkward.
My Polish lady bought herself some pussywillows and gave me a few wacks on the back of the knee on the way out (which makes me OFFICIALLY fertile) and we called it a night after about 45 minutes of soaking it in.
After seeing a busy and happy Central Terminal we headed out towards the decaying streets of Broadway-Fillmore and after a few minutes of asking ourselves why CT is in such disrepair, we were quickly reminded of why.
Kudos to everyone at the CTRC and good luck in raising the funds to repair the gem that is the Central Terminal. Everyone loves having a reason to go to the Terminal for events, and hopefully the unofficial convention center of Buffalo gets the full restoration it deserves (Hello Mr. Spitzer/Albany)
Abandoned buildings > Drinking in dorms
Well, maybe thats not always the case (in fact it usually isn’t). My friend Alex wanted to do donuts with his ‘88 Volvo in a big parking lot so we decided on the one near the Larkin@Exchange building. While spinning around and leaving asphalt circles in the snow-coated lot, I noticed a huge brick wall in the back corner of the lot so i said
“Like OMGZ thats FLW’s 1st office building!”
because I’m basically a dork.
So we pulled over and walked around with our friend Abhishek. Not gonna lie, I tried to see if there were any loose bricks…but there were none…but still excited nonetheless (as you can see in the picture)
Afterwards we decided to pull up to Central Terminal.
As you can see, Abhishek knows that its polite to dress like the locals.
I, on the other hand, am just awkwardly giddy.
CT at night is always pretty creepy…which is fun but it was Wayyyyy to windy to walk around though (as you can tell in the picture below)
On the way back we yelled random party slogans as we drove down Chippewa and then took Main Street back up to UB and all agreed that UB was beyond stupid for not putting a campus downtown.
Buffalo might be down, depressing, and decrepid amongst other things but goshdarnit…Buffalo can be fuckin cool as hell while being all of those things…something Amherst can’t.
Telling the downstaters about the OTHER Central Terminal
Earlier this week, Russell Pawlak of the Central Terminal Restoration Committee came into our architecture class to tell all 375 of us about the story that comes with the infamous East Side structure. Showed us some construction photos taken by a German man who was studying in America in the late 20’s, and told us the neglected history of it.
He’s your typical outgoing, happy, funny, passionate Buffalonian and since most people in my class aren’t from the area they seemed taken aback by his personality.
He mentioned a couple interesting things. One was that he tried to get the Seneca Gaming Corporation to look at the terminal but never had the slightest interest. And something even more interesting was that when the pumped out the million gallons of water that was in the terminal, they had it tested, it was proven to be perfectly clean, and so Russell tried to brand the product “Terminal Water” but I guess that didn’t fly.
As clean as it could be, knowing you’re drinking water from a train station that hasn’t been used since 1979 doesn’t scream out “Thirst Quencher” to me.
After listening to him I’m even more amazed and impressed with the efforts of the CTRC. It takes a lot of love and patience to take care of the Terminal for no money.
I think a lot of the kids were really impressed with the building and were astonished with its’ collapse. If Russell wasn’t invited to come to this class I don’t think 300 of these UB architecture kids would have ever known about this amazing building…and that’s pretty ironic…and sad.
But anyways, visit the terminal and if you’re really really rich, donate about 8-15 million for the complete renovation of the building.
Central Terminal clock @ M&T Center?
Hmm, what’s that clock? Let’s look closer…
Wait a second…is that the Central Terminal clock? Me thinks it is, but I thought they returned it to the station…guess it would kind of be a waste since not too many people will ever get to see it if it remains in its original environment. Anyone know about this?
What are we gonna do with you?
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I took a walk from Main Street all the way down Broadway and by the time I got to Central Terminal I realized this…
There is nothing within the realm of reality that we can do to make this beautiful building as useful as it once was. Nothing about the community aroud it could let it become anything important. The truth hurts sometimes.
Broadway Is Dark Tonight…
Yesterday, in my quest to go to Central Terminal, I walked from Main Street, to Broadway, aaaaall the way down to the Central Terminal. Most depressing commercial street ever. I took tons of pics but i don’t have access to my USB port until wednesday. I walked back though on William Street…not too shabby for where its located. Everyhouse on the street is brand new, it was quite refreshing.
But the main story…Central Terminal.
Wow. Words do not describe that experience, pushing myself through 4ft high weeds to get to the platform, walking around the building in awe…the silence so silent that the movement of a grasshopper made me flip out, the darkness inside-i couldnt see my own hand! Truly incredible. Incredible pics next week when i get back to normal schedule.
Central Casino
There is nothing else we can do (rationally) with this beautiful/decaying building…the East Side is struggling, why not help out this not-so-supported/visted part of town. It’s only 2miles from Downtown and would automatically be an attraction just by the building itself. This obviously won’t happen since the Mayor is insistent on a downtown jump-off…as long it’s not the Waterfront. But until then, what the hell are we gonna do with this amazing art deco gem?