City Hall Fiddles - Buffalo's Historic Properties Burn

I spoke with a couple firemen who were there dowsing the charred remains at 7am. 75% of the roof was burned and the view from above goes direct to the basement. The cause, arson. An accelerant was most likely used and fed the nightmares of neighbors whose well kept homes were always in the proximal path of another fire in the City's increasingly larger vacant housing stock. Fortunately everyone was wakened and no one was hurt on Woodlawn this morning.

woodlawn row houses - 7am this morning

The fire wrecked any realistic hope of ever saving one of the last sets of row houses here in the Queen City. Designated by the City's Preservation Board with local land mark status in 1982, the Woodlawn Row Houses were architecturally and historically unique. Here's the archive.

rear of woodlawn row houses - 6:30am this morning

fixBuffalo readers may remember the other historic - local landmark and National Register - property, The Wollenberg Grain Elevator. It was owned by the City and never maintained or properly sealed. It burned three years ago. It was the last remaining wooden grain elevator - the forerunner of Concrete Atlantis - and an integral part of our city's historic and industrial past. It was never marketed by the Division of Real Estate and clearly could have been part of the City's resurgence, similar to the Waasaic Project.

An emergency demolition is the most likely scenario for what remains. The path to the City's Division of Real Estate is well worn. Responsibility lies there. Accountability doesn't. Why?

See flickr slide show - Burning Woodlawn!

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Burning Slide Show - Woodlawn Row Houses

Flickr slide show of this morning's wreckage on Woodlawn Avenue.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Burning - The Woodlawn Row Houses

On my way home this morning I noticed the smoke belching from the top floor. I called 911 at 3:09 and the first fire truck arrived 3 minutes later.

Developing. Updates later.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Ellicott Street Changes Part I - Ulrich's

Jim Daley was outside this afternoon watching the exterior renovations here at Ulrich's. He's carefully planned a number of significant facade improvements at one of Buffalo's best loved food/drink spots and the City's oldest continuously run tavern.

If you're not from Buffalo and are considering passing through the Queen City or staying longer you'll want to stop and eat/drink here at Ulrich's. Please don't let restaurant and food reviews such as this one - Bon appetit! America's Top Restaurant Cities - (see second paragraph) sour you on Queen City Cuisine. Check out this riotous short video featuring Nelson Starr on food and Buffalo, filmed by John Paget for your guide to what's authentic and so Buffalo. After seeing Nelson and John's video, Anthony Bourdain stopped by for a 'No Reservations' segment a few months back.

Here's the architect's rendering of what we can expect in a few days and a close-up of the custom fenestration that will be installed on the building's second floor. The sketch is adapted from a 1927 picture of Ulrich's that Jim has been looking at for years. Make sure to check out Ulrich's for additional development news. Jim expects the renovations to be complete by the week's end. I'll be back with friends for beers on Friday night to check out the some of the interior renovations Jim is completing.

click image to enlarge

In addition to the facade and interior renovations here at Ulrich's there a number of additional developments and projects unfolding here along Ellicott Street. More about the City's newest park, next week.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Midtown Neighborhood Plan - Stalled or Stopped?

FixBuffalo readers may remember a five part series of posts - Neighborhood Plan - from this past Spring where I first started asking a number of questions about a $12m scatter-shot-rent-to-own neighborhood development plan that was scheduled for this Midtown neighborhood. Artvoice picked up on it - here.

The Buffalo News carried a front page article about this development today - right here. At the center of the storm is Rev. Richard Stenhouse in what the Buffalo News has called a 'pay-to-play' mentality about this $12m development.

Rev. Stenhouse is no stranger to controversy surrounding housing issues here in Cold Springs. Two years ago, as the City's Control Board secretary/treasurer and Executive Director of Bethel CDC he was involved in a number of Housing Court cases involving Bethel's ownership of four violation ridden houses on Michigan Avenue, directly across the street from one of the City's recently renovated schools, Performing Arts HS. Here's that story.

Earlier this evening I visited Ada Place and talked to a number of residents, folks who've owned homes on one of Cold Springs most challenged streets, with one of the most amazing compact streetscapes in the City. They quickly pointed to 38 Ada Place - covered here, last March and first, three years ago here - a single family home still owned by Rev. Stenhouse's Bethel CDC.

38 Ada Place - owned by Bethel CDC since 2000

Residential development here should be concentrated and strategic, not scattered. It should respect good planning and urban design principles. This plan didn't and shouldn't have gotten as far as it did. There's a strong case to be made for re-hab financing and/or a revolving low-interest loan fund, for area residents to access for all sorts of deferred maintenance on homes here in Midtown's struggling, architecturally and historically rich neighborhoods. The $12m that had been earmarked for 50 new-builds and a club house on Michigan Avenue (that's right - here), needs to be urgently redirected.

A number of very astute people, long involved in housing policy in this 'shrinking city' that I spoke with late Monday afternoon, weren't so much shocked by the revelations that appeared in today's B/N article as they were relieved. As one told me today - "today more people will finally see that the 'strong-arm' practices, so reminiscent of third-world political hacks and thugs have finally come to the surface in Buffalo - a city that now really resembles a 'failed-state'.

Strong language. This should be interesting, watching this one un-wind.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Artspace Gardens

Behind Artspace on Ellicott is the City's newest raised bed community garden project. When I stopped by this afternoon, Amanda and Colleen we're busy with a number of other Artspace residents filling the raised beds with compost.

They've been working on the project all year and with the cooperation of Artspace who bought the land and Buffalo Re-Use - raised beds and compost, they're planning on a bountiful crop of herbs and vegetables.

Amanda showed me the garden path she's created linking Artspace with the neighborhood, the sort of linkages that I always imagined that would be established between Artspace and the community.

click image to enlarge

Colleen is putting together a 'work-day' schedule for this project and she can be reached at colleenthinks@gmail.com for more information. Topping a list of needs for the project is a garden shed. So, if any fixBuffalo readers have or know of garden shed that's available, please contact Colleen.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

St. Martin Village

This afternoon the City's Preservation Board unanimously approved the demolition plan for a number of buildings on the site of the former German Roman Catholic Orphan Home at the end of Dodge Street. The three iconic structures - two dormitory towers and the chapel - will be incorporated into the new St. Martin Village, a 60 unit housing development.

Here's the plan -

click here for larger image

Gary Bichler - R&P Oak Hill Development - and Philip Silvestri - Silvestri Architects - were both on hand to describe the exciting news for the neighborhood and answer a number of questions from Preservation Board members. While final details of the site's parking arrangements drove most of the conversation, everyone present embraced the $15m project. According to Gary, the construction documents are scheduled for a November closing. I asked him about site security - see photo archive - and he promised that once the project closes, the site will be secured.

The project will create 36 new townhouses and 24 apartments in the former dormitory towers. Belmont Management will be the site manager and after a period of 15 years, tenants can purchase their residences.

Yesterday, I spent about an hour walking the site. Doors to all the buildings were still wide open, like they've been for the past four years. Here some pics. Three years ago, Sean Galbraith one of continent's leading urban photographers, created the following site map. It was used in the DK Photo Group's Toronto based show, Orphaned in 2006. This 1915 map shows what's been lost/gained over the years. Here's a link to a number of posts from years past.

Very cool development here in the neighborhood and all things considered, a thoughtful reuse of one of the City's most neglected heritage properties. I'll be tracking progress in the coming months.

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Correction (7/27/09 - 5pm): I wrote last week that Belmont Shelter would be involved in the management of St. Martin's, I was wrong. A different agency, Belmont Management will be doing this. I apologize for the confusion that this may have caused.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Urban Disintegration

This showed up in my email this morning as the story of the week from Preservation Nation.

It's a fascinating six minute short about the intersection of abandonment, architecture and video in telling stories about places that are being demolished and disappearing from memory in the Queen City. The opening shot includes a view of 98 Laurel Street, a small defiant place that still stands as of this morning in Buffalo's Cold Springs neighborhood.

Perhaps only a movie can capture the plight of the 1920s bungalows in Buffalo, N.Y., that are being torn down to make way for McMansions. In a six-minute film, a camera moves inside several of the doomed houses as workers tear them apart. Filmmaker Billy Erhard tracks across walls, peers through holes in ceilings and floors, and travels upstairs and onto roofs. Jittery home movies flash against one house's half-razed walls, accompanied by the sound of hammering.

This was film maker Billy Erhard's entry - 'Urban Disintegration' - in a short film contest sponsored by the Los Angeles based Society for Moving Images about the Built Environment, SMIBE.

SMIBE tries to collect films that touch on this notion of recording or "preserving," space visually. Indeed, several competition entries focused on abandoned, blighted, or environmentally damaged structures or areas - read the rest.

Preservation Nation is the on-line magazine and official site for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the same organization that has chosen Buffalo, NY for its annual conference in 2011 - details here.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Blogging Update

Blogging will be light and probably sporadic for the rest of the summer. I'll be posting on a more regular routine in the Fall.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Woodlawn Row Houses - July 2009

The Woodlawn Row Houses are a familiar sight to fixBuffalo readers. In part and because of the historic local landmark designation, I was inspired to start blogging about my neighborhood. While the roof is still good and the row is boarded and secure there a number of porch roof supports that have recently failed. The City of Buffalo still owns the row.

If you're interested in taking a closer look at the Woodlawn Row Houses and exploring the opportunity for an amazing renovation project, please contact me.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Buffalo's Packard

The Packard's emergence as a neighborhood anchor and a new Midtown residence has been amazing to watch. I first heard about the Packard's sale between Cash Cunningham and Regan Development two years ago from Pyramid broker and neighborhood advocate Bob Bininiszkiewicz. What I didn't know about the deal was that Cash had purchased the site in 1997 at the City's tax sale for $20K!

photo courtesy of Cash Cunningham

1325 Main Street was designed by Albert Kahn in 1926. Kahn designed many of Packard Motor Car Company's buildings including Buffalo's first Ford factory - the Tri-Main. The Packard's black metal conical water tank - with 'Packard Motor Cars" in historic script done in white over a red hexagon, a symbol that appeared on original Packard wheel discs - has long been a fixture here in Midtown. Here's a link to the National Register Application for additional details about the building's architectural, historic and industrial significance.

There are 40 new residences with exposed concrete piers and tall ceilings. These are very cool spaces. New York State's Division of Housing & Community Renewal released the following today about the Packard - good news! One block away Artspace occupies the recently renovated industrial building that once housed the Buffalo Electric Vehicle Company where electric cars were manufactured in the early 20th century.

The neighborhood is also home to Lourdes Church and St. Vincent's where the future of both iconic structures remains uncertain.

Here's a short flickr series - The Packard.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

City Honors - June 2009 Update

I spoke with the crane operator on Monday afternoon and learned that the structural steel for the new 'all high' gymnasium will be delivered to the site on Tuesday, on schedule. The natatorium recently received a roof and the sides are now wrapped in plywood.

Hamilton Houston and Lownie, the Buffalo based architectural firm heading up this project, recently placed a sign on the fence. HHL took the lead two years ago at Artpace, a few blocks away.

I spotted this west elevation on HHL's site this evening. It's the view across the new playing field and Michigan Avenue which is also the school building's historic front entrance.

Check out the City Honors archive for additional information and pics.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the neighborhood

Woodlawn Row Houses - June 2009 Update

The Woodlawn Row Houses are still available. They're owned by the City of Buffalo and seemed to have weathered the winter rather well. No roof leaks - yet.

If you're interested in taking them on as a rehab project, let me know. There's an interesting maze to negotiate at City Hall. I may be able to help.

Please visit the Woodlawn Row House archive for additional information.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Buffalo Crime Map

Slightly off topic, I know. I've been interested in googlemap mash-ups for the longest and just learned that the Buffalo Police Dept. is now reporting crimes in the Queen City using this interface.

Buffalo Crimes.

After clicking through and exploring the site and its seemless functionality, please let me know what you think of this development. Thanks.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood

Crossing the '33' - Part III

I noticed the demolition action here a couple weeks ago and stopped by the other day. According to Masten District Councilman Demone Smith's office the 46 year old pedestrian bridge connecting a once vibrant neighborhood just south of Northland Street will be rebuilt in the coming months. No news yet as to the project's cost.

The other two pedestrian crossings along the '33' connect neighborhoods that are still split. I posted about the first one, connecting Grape and Cherry Streets - see, Crossing the '33' - Part I - in January '07 and the equally bisected neighborhood near High and Gray Streets - Crossing the '33' - Part II - in May '07.

In the past few months I've become a big fan of Historic Aerials, sort of works like googlemaps. When you drill down you'll notice that the '33' was completed in stages. In the 1958 map - centered on the Science Museum - you'll see that the destruction construction had already begun, closer to downtown. By 1966 most of the '33' was completed between the 198-hourglass and downtown. The section between Best and Ferry Streets was still at-grade. Using one of the site's embedded tools take a moment to compare that 1958 moment with today's existing reality. Staggering.

While shooting what remains of the pedestrian bridge earlier this week, I noticed a number of houses on the east side of Humboldt Parkway that have been marked for demoltion. I'll be following up on those in the next few weeks.

click image to enlarge

RIP 2 Girard.

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Artspace • BAVPA • Woodlawn Row Houses • fixBuffalo flickr
Creative Class • Shrinking Cities • Saturdays in the Neighborhood