Stripping and Scrapping the City: Wonder Bread and...
1 Comments Published by fix buffalo on 1/13/2012 at 6:34 PM.
Two years ago the WONDER BREAD's N went missing, months later then the B. In October copper flashing was stripped from one of the East Side's most iconic steel-reinforced concrete industrial buildings. The building's owner pointed a finger at the tenant, East Side activist Darnell Jackson. Things got ugly. The Buffalo News covered the crime. I noticed the missing copper flashing the other day and snapped this pic.
Copper trim was stripped and scrapped from Genessee Street's City-owned Brecker Building, located where High Street meets Genessee. It's an amazing concrete building that used to house the Curtiss-Wright training school. The building's fenestration is sublime. Compare the pre-scrapping 2005 image with a more recent image from 2010. The owner of St. Matthew's stripped the flashing from one of East Ferry Street's most neglected heritage buildings. Mike Puma covered that story for Buffalo Rising. Some additional pictures of the missing copper are included in this archive about St. Matthew's.
Copper prices are high and expected to go higher this year. With sites such as ScrapMetalJunkie providing plans for copper scrapping - it's hard to believe that more of Buffalo's architectural detail won't disapper in 2012. Are there additional stories of scrapped and stripped buildings and facades? What are other Cities doing to prevent this from happening?
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The only real way to stop this from happening is to get businesses in these vacant buildings and support organizations whose mission is to do just this. One example: The Buffalo Building Reuse Project - a partnership between the city and Buffalo Niagara Partnership. Look for more on Tuesday, when the major announces some big news and possibly big funds to help bring this to fruition: http://www.thepartnership.org/expertise/buffalobuildingreuseproject, http://www.thepartnership.org/News/pressroom/PRESSRELEASES/BuffaloBuildingReuseProjectLaunchedbyPartnership