Blog free Tuesday continues...
__________________________________________________________________________Look for a major policy paper from National Vacant Properties Campaign and LISC on issues impacting our neighborhoods - vacancy and abandonment - out first part of next week.
update 10/18/06...just heard from LISC, report at printers will be released mid November.
Sources tell me of a major shake-up in City Hall's Preservation Board, too. Details to follow. Might be covered by Buffalo News on Tuesday. Something about authorizing a major $1m demolition of this City owned spot on Niagara Street with out Preservation Board approval. Byron's pissed. I gather he first read about it in the Buffalo News last week - right here.
Sort of off topic for my East side blog, yet has anyone heard something concrete about Basher Issa's pending announcement about a new 40 story luxury high-rise at South Elmwood and Mohawk? Taller than HSBC by 2 floors. Understand he's retained big firm on Grand Island for design and is in Buffalo frequently. Check out Bashar Issa's site - BSC Group. Great link to high places in Buffalo - skyline details.
update 10/18/06...just heard from LISC, report at printers will be released mid November.
Sources tell me of a major shake-up in City Hall's Preservation Board, too. Details to follow. Might be covered by Buffalo News on Tuesday. Something about authorizing a major $1m demolition of this City owned spot on Niagara Street with out Preservation Board approval. Byron's pissed. I gather he first read about it in the Buffalo News last week - right here.
Sort of off topic for my East side blog, yet has anyone heard something concrete about Basher Issa's pending announcement about a new 40 story luxury high-rise at South Elmwood and Mohawk? Taller than HSBC by 2 floors. Understand he's retained big firm on Grand Island for design and is in Buffalo frequently. Check out Bashar Issa's site - BSC Group. Great link to high places in Buffalo - skyline details.
Artspace Archive • Annals of Neglect • BAVPA • Where is Perrysburg? • Broken Promises...
Writing the City • Woodlawn Row Houses • Tour dé Neglect - 2006 • faq • my flickr
buffalo olmsted parks conservancy
4 comments:
Not sure how your informative and even cliff-hanging post really qualifies as "blog-free," bro. Over at my crib we have whole blog-free weeks. But that is way off topic.
The release of that report from NVPC, which was to have come out Oct 24, has now been delayed by a week or so because of the havoc wrought by last week's storm.
thanks for the update...
I would like to know how Buffalo's "Preservation Board" is organized and who is on it and how it operates. In a seminar I am taking in Historic and Cultural Resource Preservation in a school of architecture, I have been made keenly aware that all "power" in historic preservation in the U.S. comes from the local level (which in the case of cities like Buffalo can, obviously, be devastating). Nevertheless, there is a virtual "protocol" for how HP works: namely, there's a city Historic Preservation Officer (a generic title), and this officer's office is the only place where initiatives will/can be started and/or "go anywhere." There is always State Historic Preservation Officer, which preservationists call the SHPO (as in "ship-o"). The SHPO and city HPO must have a good working relationship, as it is through the SHPO that access to federal monies and resources is arranged and carried through.
If localities don't follow the generic "format," they are just doing things truly "on their own."
Though I've talked with quite a few people involved in preservation in Buffalo in the past few years and know there are "coalitions," etc., I am not aware of how well the local and state are meshing and who is the chief appointed person in the City government who takes on this important task. If someone knows and coud outline this for us briefly on the blog, I think it would help a lot of people understand things in Buffalo better. To me at a distance things look chaotic and almost "bloated" in terms of how many local parties are trying to do things, etc., but I'm told in the seminar I am taking that if the "national" protocol and relationship with the SHPO isn't followed, the local community either is so well off it doesn't need help or that it just doesn't get what it could/should. etc.
Just being involved with the National Trust for HP or one of its Main Street programs, etc., is not what it takes.
Maybe the pieces are "in place" in Buffalo, but if I phoned the city to ask to talk to the chief Historic Preservation Officer that works with the SHPO, who would that be? -- Important!
About the "Issa Tower"...I've heard that Monday or Tuesday this week we may hear an announcement and possible rendering of the tower. I've heard that it may be closer to 50 stories, but I guess we'll see.
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