Construction keeps chuggin’ along at Waterfront Place as there is only one more floor of to add to the condo tower.

The first few of the townhomes are done and although they’re not great they are at least less anti-social than their older neighbors aka the properties are right up to the sidewalks and not hidden by common surface lots and shrubbery.

Really excited to see how depressing the CBD side of the condo tower looks. So far so good…

Not to sound like a complete design-dork but I’m really feeling the new landscaping and such going on by the commercial slip. It might not be the most authentic of urban designs but its a well done “historic recreation” and should be a nice break from the monotony that is typical urban design in the downtown area surrounding it.

As you can see, the condo tower is coming up quickly and the first fewtownhomes are pretty much done at Waterfront Place.

Waterfront Place is really coming along quickly. The townhomes are about done and bones of the condo tower are taking shape.

Rumors of a third tower after this one is finished. If so…you gotta belive/hope that there is finally some sort of retail component and overall urban design elements that make this place not be so anti-social. I feel genuinely uncomfortable walking here…as if I’m intruding on their god-granted wish for privacy/exlucivity.

I have a lot of respect for Donn Esmonde, I really do. But when it comes to Canal Side, he makes me want to pull my hair out

Look at what already has been done to see why we should do more. The rewatered Commercial Slip, uncovered building ruins, replicated bowstring bridge and Servicemen’s Museum patterned on the Coit-McCutcheon building carry a sense of pride and the pull of history.

Yes. I love the new drawstring bridge, the new boat slips, the new Naval Museum, and the cobblestone ruins. And when locals and tourists alike visit it they’ll say “Oh. This is nice…okay so now what do we do?”

Finishing the in-progress project with public waterfront space, with offices, apartments, restaurants and bars in buildings similar to the Coit-McCutcheon, would give us a slice of the old Canal Village. It would be our version of Toronto’s Distillery District, Baltimore’s Fell’s Point, San Diego’s Old Town or Manhattan’s South Street Seaport — but with historic underpinnings that those people- magnet projects cannot match.

I have spent more than half my life in DC, a little more than half an hour from Baltimore. I go up there a few times a year and know kids who go to college there.

I have never even heard of Baltimore’s Fell’s Point until I read this article.

If Quinn and Co. get their plan to come to fruition it will still be respectful of the Erie Canal harbor. The only difference is that there will be a parking garage and a Bass Pro where grass and trees were supposed to be. Without the large anchor, other retailers of any significance aren’t going to take the high risk that is downtown Buffalo retail. By putting BassPro on the Central Wharf, a surface lot like the Webster Block remains open and ready to feed off the imminent success of a waterfront entertainment district. Its that simple. Without it, our Waterfront will be a historically significant park and nothing more.

And thats the damn point. We need a waterfront that attracts people, that when people hear “Buffalo” they think “Bills, snow, wings…oh, and Canal Side!”.

I’m sick of thinking about it, sick of debating it. Get this damn thing done.

During my travels this summer I really started to resent the rather large amount of people who are quite content with the way Buffalo is. Baltimore is not a safe city, and most of it is quite depressing. But they make up for it with their downtown, especially their renown Inner Harbor done by Cordish Development which was supposed to do Buffalo’s waterfront until the whole Adelphia thing.
The pictured above “Power Plant” is a rehab of an old industrial building and now hosts an ESPNzone, a Barnes and Noble, and a couple restaurants. Other than that, the Inner Harbor has very little evidence of historic preservation

…and no one really cares because they’re having too much time enjoying themselves.

Great use of parking garages. 1st floor retail including a “Big Box” *ahem* retailer and some restaurants.

The retail buildings along the water are architectually insignificant and are not historical re-creations. People don’t really care either because they have lots of good places to eat and shop at.

Throughout downtown Baltimore, really good signage is everywhere. Buffalo? Not so much. Hopefully that will change after Canal Side is completed.

The inner harbor has a wide variety of different boats, and they’re free to tour. Buffalo definitely needs a couple more boats…having them accessible for free would be cool too.

And then the icing on the cake- Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Often immitated but never replicated…the best ballpark in America and a great way to end the day in Baltimore.

Here’s hoping we take a few pages out of Baltimore’s book for our Canal Side.

As the Bass Pro project sits on the shelf and the new Naval Park area nears completion there is more activity underway or soon underway on the eternally untouched Buffalo waterfront.

1. WCP shows the world that the newst phase of Ellicott’s project is underway. Just the townhomes for now. It’ll be nice to walk around that area and not feel like you’re on a deserted island…just a private island. Look at the condo tower-looks better than the original renderings and notice they include HealthNow’s new buidling in the back. It’s a good reminder of how close the waterfront is to the city without the Niagara Thruway’s heavy presence.

2. Buffalo News reported that not only are the owners of Shanghia Red’s upgrading the restaurant but are eying a lot next to them for a small hotel! This major part of the waterfront is a concrete island surrounding the restaurnat, it’ll be nice to see it fill in a little bit. Shanghai Red’s needs more restaurants and just general commercial activity around it to succeed. In my humble opinion the food sucks for the price and I don’t think I’m the only person who feels that way so it will never be able to be profitable if its’ surroundings remain the same.

Combine all the Inner Harbor/Waterfront projects together and although they each have some faults…Buffalo will have a fairly busy and successful waterfont to be proud of when its all said and done.

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 don’t think you can have a more thorough, rational, and realistic look at the Canal Side plan than BuffaloPundit does right here.

Took the words out of my mouth and then some.

I have NO idea why this picture turned out TOTALLY X-TREME PINK shade but it was the 1st time I got a good look at this side of the Naval Park museum. Its an interesting contrast from the very traditional-looking side facing Main Street. These two buildings next to each other will make more sense when they lay down the street inbetween the two buildings which I also believe will be cobblestone.

The BassPro/retail side of the whole project might take four years to accomplish but this little corner already faced its’ day in court, so we’ll see this part pretty much done when the fall comes around.