fix buffalo today

On Tuesday evening the Parents Association for Performing Arts High School hosted an orientation and Q&A with LP Ciminelli and Cannon Design. The two hour program was incredibly well attended with 200 parents, students and about 15 teachers from Performing Arts. It was a great opportunity for students and parents to learn more about the project. I was impressed with the level of dedication and commitment by so many teachers who were present on Tuesday evening, despite the current labor issues.

This project is billed as the crowning jewell of the One Billion Dollar Joint Schools Reconstruction Project. Nothing in the local blogosphere about the single largest construction project to hit Buffalo, NY since the Erie Canal!

Frequent readers of Fix Buffalo will remember that the Woodlawn Row Houses - City owned abandoned, boarded, derelict and a Historic Land Mark - sit 125 feet away from the school's front door. I've been posting photographs of the demolition by neglect of this City of Buffalo owned property for the past 27 months. So, you can expect regular construction updates for Performing Arts, too. Right here - BAVPA.

After the meeting recent Buffalo State College urban planning graduate Stevan Stipanovich and City of Buffalo architect Paul McDonald and I had the opportunity to survey the street scene from Main/Ferry to Jefferson Avenue. I've created two related data bases to help us identify a number of properties that need to be brought into code compliance. The first data base - Along Ferry Street - will soon have photographs associated with each of the 74 properties from Main to Jefferson. The second data base - Cold Springs' Dirty Dozen - will soon provide a direct link to ownership/photos and Housing Court Records for the properties that need to be demolished in a two block area around the future home of Performing Arts. Here parents, neighbors and activists all around Buffalo will see what has to be done in order to help make this project a real success .

Nothing yet on the Cannon Design website for the project. Ditto, LP Ciminelli.

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Artspace Archive • Annals of Neglect • BAVPA • Where is Perrysburg? • Broken Promises...
Writing the City • Woodlawn Row Houses • Tour dé Neglect - 2006