RAIC 2012 The Green Renaissance Of A Rust Belt City

- email a PDF to anyone who gives me their business card.

A green renaissance in Buffalo? Yes! Buffalo is experiencing a comeback, and I think it has a
great story.

1

Map: NFLD to Buffalo
Ten years ago tomorrow (June 15), I arrived in Buffalo, New York to start a new job.

Not a lot of people moved to Buffalo for work. The trend for about 30 years was
outmigration, especially of the young and the well-educated - something that I could relate
to, being from Newfoundland.

2

St. John’s
I’ve watched the evolution of my home province from a distance for most of the past 20
years, from the closure of the fishery in the early 1990’s to the booming economy that you
see here today. This is very different from the Newfoundland that I grew up in.

Many of my friends and classmates left to find work, and we weren’t the first generation to
do that. Buffalo and Newfoundland have that in common.

3

Blizzard of ‘77
And we also have this in common – no, not the snow! Buffalo really doesn’t get that much
snow, despite what you’ve heard.

Aaron Renn describes it like this: “To choose to live in the Rust Belt is to commit to enduring a
continuous stream of bad press and mockery.”

From legendary snowstorms to chicken wings, Buffalonians have a good sense of humour.
Something else that I was familiar with, being from Newfoundland!

4

Rust Belt City
For the past 10 years, this Rust Belt city that was once great, has struggled to redefine itself.
Defined by the dominance of industry, the cities of the Rust Belt in the Midwestern and
Northeastern U.S. have fallen on hard times over the past 4 decades.

Businesses and jobs moved south to the Sunbelt or out of the country altogether. The loss of
industry, outsourcing and globalization have all had devastating effects on small industrial
cities like this.

5

Architectural legacy
But there is a resurgence happening in a number of Rust Belt cities - like Cleveland and
Pittsburgh.

Before, they used to wait for a “magic bullet” solution that would solve all of their problems,
which never came. Now they’re rebuilding around what they already have, on their own
terms, and from the ground up.

And so is Buffalo. I love this city’s architectural legacy. I believe – as many do – that this rich
past is the foundation for its future.

6

Cog in revival
A lot of positive things are happening there. Investment is coming back into the city. People
are buying houses in downtown neighbourhoods and fixing them up. Loft apartments in
historic buildings fill up even before the renovations are completed.

There is a sense of optimism that I didn’t see when I first moved there.

7

Not there yet
But - there is a lot of work to do, and old attitudes to overcome. City leadership isn’t there
yet – this quote is from a local mayor speaking about one of 3 remaining historic buildings in
his community south of Buffalo.

This is the former headquarters of Bethlehem Steel, abandoned for over 30 years and now
threatened with demolition. It’s been the site of protests over the past month by local
preservationists, who have managed to put a temporary stop to the demolition.

This comment represents old attitudes about what progress really looks like.

8

Momentum
So – job losses, population losses – is Buffalo really experiencing a renaissance?

I believe that it is.

We now have a critical mass of projects and investment for the first time in decades. Despite
the statistics, people are moving back into the city and businesses are investing in buildings
like these. It’s been picking up steam over the past 5 years.

9

Greening the rust belt
Is Buffalo’s resurgence green? In many ways – yes.

In her book, Small, Gritty and Green, Catherine Tumber named Buffalo as one of two dozen
Rust Belt cities that she believes could be leaders in sustainable urban revitalization.

She sees two primary areas where smaller industrial cities have an advantage:
1. Their loss of population and shrinking of cities means they have a capacity for growth
inward, rather than outward.
2. Their manufacturing history gives them the potential to revitalize their economies with
greener, renewable energy and industry.

Buffalo has those two covered. We’ve got empty spaces to fill, a lot of it from the heyday of
manufacturing.

10

Commercial Slip
There is now a new focus on sustainable and local businesses, alternative transportation,
community engagement, historic preservation, urban agriculture, and a new form-based
zoning code.

Together they are creating what I see as a “green renaissance” – each of them feeding into
the momentum.

Before I show you these projects and talk about some lessons learned, I want to give you
some history. To understand where Buffalo is today and why these things are significant, you
need to look back over one hundred years ago to see where it once was and how that all
changed.

11

Erie Canal
This was the key to Buffalo’s rise to prosperity in the latter half of the 19th century.

The Erie Canal: opened in 1825, the first complete transportation system between New York
City and the Great Lakes. Buffalo was the western terminus of the Canal system.

It also became an important rail hub as the railway system developed in the late 19th century.
In the lower image, Buffalo is at the left and Albany is at the right, with the canal system
connecting them across Upstate New York.

12

Grain Elevators - Historic
The Erie Canal and the railway system made this a major trans-shipment hub on the Great
Lakes. The grain elevator was invented here in 1843. At one point, there were over 40 of
them along the waterfront.

This is now called Elevator Alley – there are 14 remaining grain elevators. What used to be
seen as an eyesore is becoming a symbol of Buffalo’s industrial heritage.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_elevator)

Also check out this animation by Buffalo intern architect Seth Amman on the Cargill Grain
Elevator:
http://vimeo.com/21324950

13

Main Street 1900 - Population growth
It became an important node for the westward movement of people and goods by water and
by rail. The population grew exponentially. In 1825, when the Erie Canal opened, there
were 5,141 people.

By 1900, this was the 8th largest city in the United States with over 352,000 people. It was
the second biggest transportation center in the US after Chicago.

The period between about 1890 and 1910 was a very important time in Buffalo’s history.

14

Pan Am & City Beautiful
This was also the era of the City Beautiful movement.

Monumental architecture and grand city plans were exemplified by the Chicago World’s Fair
of 1893, and by the Pan Am Exposition that Buffalo hosted in 1901. The Pan Am was a
showcase of City Beautiful design principles, as they had been defined by Daniel Burnham in
Chicago.

15

Great parks
Grand parks and green space were an important part of the City Beautiful design
philosophy.

Buffalo has inherited the Olmsted Parks System, a series of parks and landscaped
boulevards designed by Frederick Law Olmsted starting in 1868. The parks were laid out
over top of a city plan that was modeled on L’enfant’s 1791 plan for Washington.
(http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/61.html).

Today, the Olmsted Parks system is the most important greenway in the city and Delaware
Park is its crown jewel. Both the park and this lake were part of the grounds of the 1901 Pan
Am.

The building in the top photo is the only permanent structure form the Pan Am – this is now the
home of the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society.

16

Pan Am 1901
Buffalo was an early adopter of electrical power, and the Pan Am site was lit up by
electricity. The City had the first electric street lights in the country, powered by
hydroelectricity from Niagara Falls, in 1896.

The Electric Tower was the focal point of the Pan Am, and the Temple of Music at night drew
crowds because of the lighting.

It was because of this that Buffalo earned one of its nicknames, the City of Light.

http://panam1901.org/

17

Burnham
Besides influencing the Pan Am, Daniel Burnham also designed the largest office building of
its time in Buffalo, the Ellicott Square building, completed in 1896 and still in use today.

Burnham’s philosophy, “Make no little plans …” inspired the City Beautiful movement, and
Buffalo and its architects were very much influenced by it.

18

Great buildings
This was a time when Buffalo began to attract some of the leading American architects of the
era: H.H. Richardson, McKim Mead & White, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright. The
prolific local firm of Green & Wicks designed buildings that rivaled the work of their more
famous contemporaries.

At the same time, the first American woman to become a professional architect, Louise
Blanchard Bethune, was running her own successful practice here.

It was a remarkable time for architecture in this city.

19

Millionaires’ Row - rise of Buffalo
This was the impressive backdrop to Buffalo’s rise a century ago. There was a great deal of
wealth in the city, and it shows in the homes that many of these families built. Delaware
Avenue was one of the preferred addresses. This is called “Millionaire’s Row”, now a
National Historic District. Most have now been converted to office and institutional uses.

Much of this money was made in banking, transportation, and manufacturing. The major
employer was the steel industry: it employed 10,000 people by 1910.

20

Rust Belt
Bethlehem Steel was the largest plant – it produced steel for the Golden Gate Bridge and
the Empire State Building.

By the 1940s, more than 20,000 workers were on this 1300 acre industrial site at the
southern edge of downtown. With its industry-based economy, Buffalo continued to prosper
during the decades after the Great Depression, from the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

It became the largest inland port in the US. The city’s population reached 580,000, making it
the 15th largest in the country.

Steel industry jobs were high-paying blue collar jobs, paying more than teachers or police
officers. It was easy to get a job at the plant, and it wasn’t unusual for multiple generations
of the same family to work there.

The peak of production was in 1969 with almost 7 million tons of steel coming out of Buffalo.

21

The image cannot be display ed. Your computer may not hav e enough memory to open the image, or the image may hav e been corrupted. Restart y our computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, y ou may hav e to delete the image and then insert it again.

Decline
But signs of decline had begun by the late 1950’s.

The old Erie Canal was first replaced by the railway system, and later by the St. Lawrence
Seaway. Ships that used to dock here now left Lake Erie before they reached the port of
Buffalo.

At the same time, the interstate highway system was reshaping the landscape across the
country, opening up areas further out from the City core for suburban development.

22


Grain Elevators - Today
Since the middle of the 19th century, Buffalo had been the grain storage capital of the world.
Flour mills and the city’s iconic grain elevators began closing. Manufacturers started looking
to the south for cheaper labour and lower taxes.

The last steel was made here in 1982. And Buffalo was left with scenes like this: former sites
of industry that today sit empty.

23

Sprawl
Between 1950 and 2000, the greater Buffalo region tripled its footprint, but added very
little population. The map on the right shows what 50 years of sprawl looks like: the red
areas are where everybody went.

Today, there are just over 261,000 residents within the city of Buffalo, while Erie County – the
city plus the suburbs to the north, east and south – has over 918,000 people. [2010 US
Census]

The major employers today are state government, healthcare, banking, and education.
Manufacturing still exists, employing about 10% of the population , but it’s no longer a
driving force in the economy. [Buffalo Business First – June 8 Edition]

http://joeplanner.blogspot.com/

24


Neighbourhoods
When I arrived in 2002, the seeds of Buffalo’s regeneration were being planted. A proposal
for a new bridge between Fort Erie, Ontario and downtown Buffalo spawned a healthy
debate about the value of design and the importance of preserving historic neighbourhoods.

It got people talking about their city, and their future.

It engaged a lot of young professionals and convinced them that they could make a
difference in their city. A number of the grassroots efforts going on today started with this
experience.

The driving force behind everything that is happening in Buffalo is the belief that if you have
strong neighbourhoods, people will come back. Almost everything starts at the
neighbourhood level, or relies on support from a surrounding neighbourhood.

http://elmwoodvillage.org/

25

5 themes…
I want to talk about 5 areas of redevelopment and what makes them essential to sustainable
urban revitalization, within the context of Buffalo:
•historic preservation;
•green urbanism;
•waterfront development ;
•new urban housing, and
•renewable energy.

There is so much going on in Buffalo right now that I’ve expanded these 5 themes to cover
more of the game-changing projects, ideas and initiatives that are contributing to this green
renaissance.

26


1. Shovel-ready to Preservation Ready
One of the lingering problems in Rust Belt cities is the demolition of old buildings for new
development that doesn’t happen, sometimes not for decades.

This is what we call a “Shovel-Ready” site. This particular one has been ready for over 60
years.

There is a group of preservationists in Buffalo who have turned this around and have started
a local movement called “Preservation Ready” –to refocus development towards the reuse
of buildings rather than their demolition. They have been protesting the demolition of the
Bethlehem Steel building that I showed you earlier and the imminent demolition of a dozen
historic homes in the Prospect Hill neighbourhood for the expansion of the Peace Bridge Duty
Free and parking lot.

27

1. Shovel-ready: Larkin Administration Building
Until 1950, this is what stood on that site: the Larkin Soap Company’s Administration
Building by Frank Lloyd Wright. Built in 1906 and called the most advanced office building
of its time.

It was designed around a central atrium that brought natural light deep into the building.
Managers were located at the bottom of the atrium with workers on the floors above.
Wright designed an “air conditioning” system to provide a comfortable environment for the
workers. He also designed the metal office furniture and the lighting.

In 1939, the building was renovated when the Larkin Soap Company’s Retail Store moved
over from the Factory building.

http://buffaloah.com/h/larkin/admin/index.html

28


1. Shovel-ready: Larkin Administration Building
But the business was failing and the building was sold in 1943. The City foreclosed on it for
back taxes two years later. It was vandalized and sat vacant until 1950 when the City
demolished it. The building was still so solid that it took almost 6 months to tear it down.

Only one brick fence pier remains on the site – it has been restored and maintained by a
small group of volunteers.

This building is still seen as one of the worst preservation losses in Buffalo’s history.

29

1. Shovel-ready: Larkin Soap Company
Larkin Soap Company had been a very successful business. It was founded by John D. Larkin
in 1875 to sell soap and other household items, and later expanded into a very lucrative mail
order business.

Larkin did $15 million dollars in sales in 1915. He had spent $4 million dollars on the
Administration building. That’s it in the lower right of this postcard.

The two largest buildings – in the middle and left – are still standing. Ironically, after losing
the Admin building, this is now one of the most successful “Preservation Ready” projects that
Buffalo has ever had.

30

1. Shovel-ready: Larkinville
Collectively, the remaining buildings and the entire neighbourhood is called the Larkin District
or “Larkinville”. The former 1912 factory is now the LCO Building –600,000 SF of Class A
office space that is 99% leased. Over $60 million went into improving the building, and now
more than 1900 people work there.

The major tenant is First Niagara Bank, which just bought significant holdings from HSBC,
including the HSBC Arena – the home of the Buffalo Sabres.

The redevelopment of this one building – which started 10 years ago this month - has
spawned other projects in the district, many of them by the same developer.

http://www.buffalorising.com/2012/05/the-larkin-district-pioneering-perfection.html

31

The old Larkin warehouse building is now called 701 Seneca Street, and was recently
refurbished. That’s the white building on the right (the biggest building in the middle of the
old postcard). It has 125,000 SF per floor & 8 floors – for a total of 1.2 million SF. It
currently houses more than 65 tenants, from light manufacturing to consultants and artists.

The 3 story brick building is the former U-Building, another factory that is now home to one of
First Niagara Bank’s divisions. A new public square has just finished and the former gas
station in the picture on the right is now the Filling Station Restaurant.

32


The positive effects of the LCO redevelopment have rippled throughout this area.

Almost every reusable historic building has been turned into office and residential space – or
is in the process of being rehabbed. Housing is a key component of these projects – bringing
people back into these neighbourhoods 24/7.

Architects love this area – two firms have relocated to refurbished buildings on this block,
including this one.

Lesson learned from the Larkin District: one project can turn around an entire
neighbourhood, even one as far gone as this was. This has repeated in other areas of the
city. Success breeds success.

33


1. Shovel-ready: Hotel Lafayette
Another great “Preservation Ready” success story is the Hotel Lafayette in downtown Buffalo.

It was designed by Louise Blanchard Bethune, the first American woman to open her own
architectural practice in 1881, and first to be admitted to the AIA in 1888.

The Hotel Lafayette was intended to be open in time for the Pan Am Exposition in 1901, but
construction was delayed due to funding problems.

When it finally opened in 1904, it had 367 rooms, hot and cold water in all the bathrooms,
and a phone in every room. It was expanded in the 1920s.

http://thehotellafayette.com/history

34


1. Shovel-ready: Hotel Lafayette – Before & After
The developer invested $42 million dollars into this project. He brought in highly specialized
craftsmen from Russia & Europe to restore some of the finishes. It was a lot of private
investment, but the project received a grant from the City and also benefitted from the New
York State Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits program. That has become an important tool in
redeveloping historic buildings.

This is on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.

Photos: Jackie Albarella, Buffalo filmmaker who is producing a documentary and a book on
the Lafayette –
www.thehotellafayette.wordpress.com.
jackie@albarellamedia.com

These images are from the upcoming book entitled: Bethune's Opus: Restoring Louise Bethune's
Hotel Lafayette

35


1. Shovel-ready: Hotel Lafayette – Before & After
The Lafayette has set a very high standard for adaptive reuse in Buffalo: combining retail,
food service, event spaces, hotel rooms and apartments. The level of quality in the
restoration is impeccable.

Just like in the Larkin District, housing is an important piece of the puzzle because Buffalo’s
downtown core had lost so much of its residential population.

107 of the 115 apartments were rented before the building opened last month. Many of the
new residents are empty nesters from the suburbs, expats who are returning to Buffalo, and
young professionals who work in the city.

36


1. Shovel-ready: Hotel Lafayette – Before
Over a two-year period, layers of old renovations were removed. Much of the original
elegant detailing was restored, which luckily had simply been covered over and not
destroyed. You can see where the dropped ceiling was when this was used as office space.
This is the main ballroom which has been restored…

37


1. Shovel-ready: Hotel Lafayette – After
…To this: 1500 people attended the grand opening 2 weeks ago, many of whom had
worked on the building’s renovation.

The first and second floors will be used for restaurants and special events with a focus on
weddings. A caterer, a florist, and both men’s and women’s clothing boutiques are opening
up. A dessert bar is in the former speakeasy in the basement. There are over 200 events
booked in the Lafayette’s various event rooms for the rest of the 2012.

38


1. Shovel-ready: Hotel at the Lafayette
The third floor has 34 boutique hotel rooms, renamed the Hotel at the Lafayette. Where
great care was taken in restoring the first two floors to the original design, the hotel floor is
more contemporary with hints of the building’s Pan Am roots.

This project created 270 construction jobs and is expected to create up to 200 permanent
jobs.

http://thehotellafayette.com/

39

1. Shovel-ready: National Trust
Preservation has been in the spotlight in Buffalo since last fall, when the City hosted the 65th
annual conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Over 2500 delegates were
here, touring historic sites like this grain elevator.

This was a big moment for Buffalo: it was a huge boost to the city’s confidence and to the
efforts of the local preservation community. The positive after-effects continue, even now.

40


2. Urban Prairie to Urban Agriculture
One of the things that Buffalo was not so proud to show off to the National Trust was this:
acres of urban prairie, located predominantly on the City’s East Side.

This is the City’s poorest area, with hundreds of abandoned homes and vacant lots. But 40
years ago, this was a thriving neighbourhood with thousands of residents and many successful
businesses.

These two images are from an article by Mark Byrnes called “Buffalo Then and Now” which
was published on The Atlantic Cities website. Using an historic map and Google Maps, he
compared parts of the city from 1902 (left) to 2011 (right).

Nowhere is the difference more striking than in this neighbourhood.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2011/12/buffalo-then-and-now-1902-
2011/716/

41


2. Urban Prairie
In the midst of being praised for its preservation efforts last fall, the city of Buffalo was
plowing ahead with the Mayor’s “5000 in 5” campaign: demolish 5000 vacant buildings
in 5 years. The devastating impacts of this policy on the East Side are magnified by the
complete lack of a plan to rebuild anything in its place.

The City’s Office of Strategic Planning estimated that in 2011, Buffalo had about 16,000
vacant lots, with about 6,600 of them being city-owned.

This article is from the front page of The Buffalo News a month ago. It raised a lot of
questions about this policy: most importantly, do all of the houses on the City’s demo list
really need to be demo’d? Many people think that a lot of them could be renovated and
reused.

42


2. Urban Prairie
Something needs to be done about this - these homes become magnets for crime and drugs.
But large-scale demolition without a plan for putting anything back there only leaves these
neighbourhoods in ruins.

On one East Side street, 99 buildings have been demolished since 2000. On another street, it
was 96; on another, 81: dozens of demolitions on dozens of streets.

As the impact of the demolition program settles in, some blocks on the East Side are almost
completely wiped out.

This isn’t what “community renewal” should look like.

43


2. Urban Prairie: Wilson Street Urban Farm
One solution – even if it’s a temporary one, as Catherine Tumber describes it in her book, Small,
Gritty and Green, is urban farming.

Urban farms are popping up in a lot of Rust Belt cities. Detroit has over 900 community gardens and
small-scale farms.

One family fought with the City of Buffalo to purchase a 2-acre parcel of vacant land next to their
home on the East Side so they could develop a small farm.

The City resisted, saying it was going to build townhouses there. The reality is - it will be years
before there is enough demand to build new housing in this neighbourhood. They finally gave in
after a lot of public pressure and leased the land to the family.

The Wilson Street Urban Farm now provides fresh produce through a farm stand and a CSA
program. They’ve been joined by at least 3 other farms in the area, and a rooftop community
garden at the Broadway Market. A cooperative called Farmer Pirates has been formed to help
other urban farmers get started and to pool resources.

http://wilsonstreeturbanfarm.wordpress.com/

http://www.farmerpirates.com/

44


2. Urban Prairie: MAP
On the city’s West Side, urban agriculture started in 2003 with the Massachusetts Avenue
Project, or MAP. It started with a few community gardens on vacant lots. Now, it’s a
successful nonprofit that offers a youth skills training program and a fresh food source for
poor families.

MAP farms nearly an acre of vacant lots around the West Side. Some are joint efforts with
People United for Sustainable Housing or PUSH Buffalo, another non-profit that is
transforming the neighbourhood.

MAP’s Growing Green program trains young people in farming, business and job skills, and
has employed 400 kids since it started. It also runs a farm stand and a mobile market, and
an aquaculture set-up that raises thousands of tilapia.

Lesson Learned: community gardens and small-scale urban farming are good uses of vacant
inner city properties, even if it’s a temporary use until the neighbourhood gains enough
traction to reinvest in those properties.

This is neighbourhood-level revitalization, not waiting for leadership to happen but people
making it happen on their own streets, building by building and lot by lot.

http://mass-ave.org/

45


2. Urban Prairie: Land Banking
Last month, New York State approved one of the first Land Banks for this region. It will
operate as a nonprofit that can bid on properties at tax foreclosure auctions. The intention is
to facilitate things like community gardens and farming as temporary uses.

Will this really help? Other Rust Belt cities like Flint, Michigan think so. They created one in
2002: it gave the county government temporary ownership over abandoned properties.
Land banking made it easier for the county to acquire ownership of these properties, and to
reinvest in them or sell them to new owners.

Land banks stabilize neighbourhoods in decline and direct funding towards maintenance,
renovation or demolition, rather than letting properties crumble. It may also reduce the
problem of absentee landlords who don’t maintain their properties and avoid taxes.

46


3. Lighter, quicker, cheaper
The best solutions are not always the biggest ideas. This is a chronic problem for Rust Belt
cities like Buffalo – always looking for that one big project that will fix everything. Rarely
does it happen.

I have always lived in waterfront cities, but when I moved here, I was struck by the lack of
access to the water. For a city that has so much of it – Lake Erie, Buffalo River, and the
Niagara River – there was very little to draw people to the water’s edge.

47


3. Lighter, quicker, cheaper: Canalside
This is Canalside: the big idea for Buffalo’s waterfront - over $300 million dollars to be
spent on about 20 acres of prime downtown waterfront land.

For 9 years, the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation, the State Agency tasked with
managing the project, courted a big box retailer – Bass Pro Shops – to build a flagship store
here. Plenty of tax breaks and incentives were promised.

This was going to be the main focal point of a mixed-use development that included a huge
parking garage and rebuilding of a portion of the Erie Canal. Few people were happy with
the idea of a big box store on the waterfront - or with the idea of paying a very successful
mega-retailer a lot of money to set up shop here.

But there was no public consultation, and the plans were full steam ahead - until Bass Pro
finally said no-thank-you in 2010.

It was the best thing that could have happened.

48


The Development Corporation had to go back to the drawing board, but this time they did it
the right way. They held a series of public meetings. A lot of people came and talked about
their vision for their waterfront. They hadn’t been asked before.

The mantra became “lighter, quicker, cheaper”: don’t wait on the big ideas, the ones that
take years to happen. Start with the small stuff that can be done in a single construction
season and that will show people that something is actually happening. Lay the groundwork
for the bigger pieces.

The consultants listened, went away and re-designed parts of the project to better reflect
what people were asking for.

This is the modified Master Plan. No big boxes. No massive parking lots. More public open
space. More space for smaller local businesses.

A lot of small things rather than one big thing. And it’s working.

49


This is the most recent phase to be completed - it was in use last summer: small things, like
signage and picnic tables. Enough to bring people down here, keep the momentum going,
and get them excited about what’s still to come.

You know what made the biggest difference? Millions of dollars in infrastructure and
improvements, and the one thing that tipped the scale?

50


A few thousand dollars’ investment in Adirondack chairs.

This is the biggest hit of the whole project so far.

Lighter, quicker, cheaper.

51


Newfoundland’s Great Big Sea played here a few years ago to a sold out crowd – and
everyone knew the words of their songs. That was kind of surreal!

These are the biggest lessons of the Buffalo waterfront:

Forget the magic bullet that so many Rust Belt cities wait for. It isn’t coming.

Start with what you have. Build upon that.

Listen to what people envision for their own city.

Think big by thinking smaller.

http://www.eriecanalharbor.com/

52


4. Greening the Zoning Code
Those lessons from the waterfront were heard loud and clear at City Hall.

Two years ago, the City announced it would overhaul its 60 year old zoning code, and it was
going to use an open, public process to do it.

Hundreds of people have come to a series of public meetings held in each neighbourhood of
the City. The latest round was held just last week: 10 community meetings – people fully
engaged in creating a new zoning code. It’s because they understand what it will mean for
their neighbourhoods, and they want to be part of it.

http://www.buffalogreencode.com/

53

We like to think that we helped to plant the seeds for this. In 2006, the Urban Design
Committee of the AIA Buffalo/WNY Chapter developed its contribution to the AIA’s 150th
anniversary celebration.

We decided to create a web-based educational tool for the community called “Form-Based
Zoning: A Blueprint for Buffalo’s Future”. Members of our committee included 3 City
planners and the future Executive Director of the Planning Department.

The website is unfortunately not up right now. But it provided an introduction to the concept
of form-based and smart codes, an explanation of how this could be applied to Buffalo, and
a number of successful case studies.

This was an important piece of advocacy by architects within our community. It helped
to get the conversation started.

http://www.aia.org/practicing/AIAB083266

54

The consultant team hired by the City includes urban planning firm Camiros from Chicago and
Goody Clancy from Boston, who are working with a local firm and the City’s Office of
Strategic Planning.

The new zoning code is based on the principles of smart growth and New Urbanism. It
focuses on transit, walkable communities, environmental sustainability, and revitalizing inner
city residential neighbourhoods. It will encourage a mix of uses that the old 1951 code was
never intended to achieve.

55

The project team is also incorporating principles to allow the development of community
gardens and urban farming, plus standards for greener buildings. This is a page from the
Technical Report which was released in April.

The City passed a Complete Streets ordinance in 2008 which dovetails into the new Code.
Complete Streets are designed for all users of the roadways – bikes, cars, pedestrians, and
transit riders. This is already being implemented in new roadwork projects.

The Green Code is expected to be complete by the end of this year. The implementation
phase will follow. It’s expected to be a major topic of discussion when the Congress for the
New Urbanism holds its annual conference in Buffalo in 2014.

56


5. Museum Pieces: Preserving Frank Lloyd Wright
I think there are two primary approaches to historic preservation: restore a building to
museum-quality and keep it pristine; or renovate it and give it a new life, sometimes with a
completely different use.

Most of the projects that are happening in Buffalo are examples of the latter, like the Hotel
Lafayette and the Larkin District. But this project is definitely a museum piece.

The Larkin Administration Building was just one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s projects in Buffalo. He
also built 6 houses. All of them had connections to the Larkin Soap Company.

This is one of his most substantial and best realized Prairie Houses: the estate of Larkin
executive, Darwin D. Martin, who was one of Wright’s most loyal clients for over 30 years. He
was instrumental in convincing his boss to hire Wright to design the Larkin Administration
Building, instead of hiring Louis Sullivan.

http://www.darwinmartinhouse.org/

57


5. Museum Pieces: Martin House Complex
Darwin Martin brought Wright to Buffalo in 1902 to look at a building lot in the Delaware
Avenue area.

Wright convinced him to buy this property in the city’s Parkside neighbourhood instead,
bordering on Olmsted’s Delaware Park.

The first structure to be built was a small house for Martin’s sister & her husband, the Barton
House. It sits in the upper right of the site plan and is the photo on the bottom right.

A pergola in the back connected the main house with a conservatory and a carriage house at
the upper left. In 1909, a gardener’s cottage was built to the west of the carriage house, not
shown on this drawing – that’s the photo on the upper right.

58


The Martin house was finished in 1906. The family continued to live in the house until two
years after Darwin Martin’s death in 1935.

Mrs. Martin and her children then walked away from the house, unable to afford to keep it
up. They went to live at Graycliff, the summer home on Lake Erie that Wright had designed
for the family in 1927.

The house sat empty until 1954 when it was purchased by an architect. It was subdivided
into two apartments and an owner's residence. Many of the original art glass windows had
disappeared, along with most of the Wright-designed furniture.

59


In 1962, the pergola, conservatory and carriage house were demolished and two apartment
buildings were built on the property. Those buildings were still there when I first saw the
house in 1998. You can see one of them in the background on the right.

The University at Buffalo bought the main house in 1967 and used it as the President’s home
and Alumni Association office. The Barton house was sold to private owners.

60


The Martin House Restoration Corporation was formed in 1992 to acquire and restore the
entire property. It first bought the Barton House. The main house’s restoration began in
1997.

Interior Restoration is ongoing in the main house, but the pergola, conservatory and carriage
house have all been reconstructed. The Barton House and the Gardener’s Cottage are both
used for special events.

This project is seen as the centerpiece of architectural tourism in the city, as one of Wright’s
most significant Prairie houses. It was a popular host site for events at the National Trust
conference last fall.

61


5. Museum Pieces: Visitor Center
The estimated cost – including the construction of the new visitor center – is $50 million
dollars.

Toshiko Mori’s design was selected in an international design competition in 2002. Her
concept was based in Wright’s Prairie House principles – the roof is actually an inverted
Prairie House roof. The new building is adjacent to the main house, and opened in 2009.

Photo: Greg Meadows
http://www.howgregseesit.blogspot.com/

62


5. Museum Pieces: Heath & Davidson Houses
I see this house on the left from my front porch. It was built for William Heath who was a VP
of the Larkin Company. Frank Lloyd Wright designed it in 1905.

It’s on a narrow deep lot that was a challenge for Wright’s Prairie Style. The long side is
parallel to the street and the front faces one of Frederick Law Olmsted’s parkways. This is
very similar to the type of site that the Robie House was designed for. This house is privately
owned.

Another Larkin Company executive, Walter Davidson, hired Wright to design his home in the
Parkside neighbourhood in 1908, not far from the Martin House. This house is also privately
owned.

63


5. Museum Pieces: Unbuilt Wright
Three of Frank Lloyd Wright’s unbuilt projects have been built here in the past 8 years – a
boathouse on the Niagara River, a Gas Station recreated inside the Pierce Arrow Auto
Museum, and this mausoleum that Wright designed in 1928 for Darwin Martin. It wasn’t built
until 2004 by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and Forest Lawn Cemetery, where it’s
located.

Darwin Martin lost almost everything in the stock market crash of 1929. When he died in
1935, his entire estate was worth 37 cents, plus his homes in Buffalo and at Graycliff. When
Frank Lloyd Wright heard about Martin’s death, he wrote to a colleague, "Today my best
friend has died." Wright & Martin had a 30 year friendship.

http://wrightsboathouse.org/

http://www.pierce-arrow.com/

http://www.buffaloah.com/a/forestL/martin/index.html
http://www.blueskymausoleum.com/the-story/

65


6. Adaptive Reuse: Richardson Olmsted Complex
These magical museum-piece restoration projects are rare. It’s the adaptive reuse projects
that happen more often. One of the largest such projects is the former Buffalo State Asylum
for the Insane, renamed the Richardson Olmsted Complex in honour of its two chief designers.

This was the largest commission of Henry Hobson Richardson’s career. It was also a unique
collaboration between the architect and landscape architect.

Frederick Law Olmsted’s role in designing the grounds of the facility was equally important
and complementary to the building design. Both reflected the state of psychiatric treatment
at the time with an emphasis on plenty of natural light, fresh air and access to nature.

This is a Kirkbride hospital – named for the doctor who developed and implemented his
belief that architecture could create a better environment for the treatment of mental illness.

http://www.richardson-olmsted.com/index.php

66


The site was originally over 200 acres of farmland on the northern edge of the city. Patients
worked on the farm as part of their treatment.

Today, the northern half of the original site is now the campus of Buffalo State College, which
was started in 1927. In 1969, portions of the eastern wing were demolished to build a new
psychiatric facility.

Patients continued to live here into the 1970s, when they were moved to an expanded facility
next door. This building was added to the National Register in 1973.

67

Offices remained in the building until the 1990s. Then the State Office of Mental Health
announced plans to divest of some of its properties, including this one.

Study after study looked at different reuse ideas - a school, gallery, offices, residential, even
a seniors’ facility - but nothing was implemented.

The buildings continued to deteriorate, until emergency stabilization work was carried out in
2004 & 2005. But that was only after a group of preservationists brought a lawsuit against
New York State over the lack of maintenance of an historic landmark.

68


Finally, after years of public pressure, former NY Governor George Pataki pledged $100
million towards the restoration. Some of that money was later diverted to other projects,
including the Martin House Visitor Center. That left $76.5 million for Richardson.

The Richardson Center Corporation (RCC) was created to oversee the project. It hired
consulting firms to document the existing building and study reuse options while additional
stabilization work continued.

This is another example of a public process that is aiming to create a consensus among the
many stakeholders for this project. Everyone recognizes that this site has great national
importance while also being embedded in a neighbourhood. A Community Advisory Group
was created to give feedback on the proposals. Public meetings have been held throughout
the process.

69


The first site project from the Master Plan is underway this summer: the South Lawn, designed
by Andropogon Associates to restore some of Olmsted’s original plan, much of which has
either been lost or was never built. Parking lots are being relocated; pathways and a
driveway are being rebuilt. The north side of the towers building will become the new main
entrance.

Over 50 proposals are currently being reviewed by the RCC Board for the first building
renovation project involving the central towers building and two adjoining wings. This will
create space for the new Buffalo Architecture Center, a boutique hotel, and event and
conference spaces.

The winning submission will be announced in the next 2 weeks.

70


Last fall, the building made its Public debut at the National Trust Conference – the first tours
of the interior in 10 years. Public tours are sold out already for this summer.

The immense size of the Richardson Complex raised this issue: When is a building too big to
be saved and reused? That’s the excuse that often comes up when talking about some of
Buffalo’s larger historic buildings.

What are the options if it isn’t going to work financially? Sixty years ago, for the Larkin
Administration Building, there were no questions asked – it was simply demolished.

71


7. Too big to save?
One building that we came close to losing is the Hotel Statler. This building reminds me of the
old Newfoundland Hotel that was torn down here in the 80’s – but a lot bigger.

The Statler is located across from City Hall, and has great historical value. But many were
calling for its demolition 2 years ago because it was just too big & expensive to do
anything with. There is also asbestos abatement to be done, adding to the cost.

This was Ellsworth Statler’s second Buffalo hotel and one of his grandest. In 1923, it cost $8
million dollars to build the 18 story, 1100-room hotel. The Statler was the height of luxury
when it was completed.

It became the Statler Hilton in the ‘50’s, and remained a hotel until 1982, then was converted
to retail and offices. But the building continued to deteriorate without any significant
investment.

72


7. Statler City
The Statler was put up for auction in 2010, and bought by local restaurant and bar owner in
March 2011. The approach to the renovation is the right one: the market just isn’t ready to
absorb another 600,000 SF of space. Attention has been focused first on necessary repairs
and stabilization, and on bringing back the lower floors to their original Art Deco-era glory.
It has been a great success.

The plan is to renovate the upper floors as demand increases, with either office, residential,
or hotel space – or a combination of all 3. Each floor has about ¾ of an acre in space.

The newly renamed Statler City is now a destination for weddings and special events. The
opening reception of the National Trust Conference was held here last fall.

http://www.statlercity.com/

73


7. Statler City & Niagara Square
This building almost became another shovel-ready site. If the current owner hadn’t stepped
in, there were no other viable offers and the building would have been lost.

Now it sits on the City’s most prominent square, with the art deco City Hall and a new federal
courthouse by Kohn Pedersen Fox as its neighbours.

http://www.buffaloah.com/a/niagSq/65/city.html

http://www.kpf.com/project.asp?ID=12

74


7. Central Terminal
This is another building that came close to being shovel-ready: Buffalo’s Central Terminal.
This Art Deco railway station opened in June 1929 - just before the Stock Market crash. Cost:
$14 million dollars.

Buffalo was an important stop on the New York Central Railroad up until the mid-1950s,
when people began travelling by car or plane and railways were losing money. Before the
company went bankrupt in 1970, four of the accessory buildings were demolished. Amtrak
used the Terminal until 1979, when it built a small modern station a few miles away.

Central Terminal was sold to a private owner for $75,000. The passenger concourse that
connected the terminal to the platforms was demolished in 1981 to allow taller freight cars to
use the route. You can see that in the lower right of this photo.

http://buffalocentralterminal.org/

75


7. Central Terminal
When the owner defaulted on taxes, the city put it up for auction. At this point, the historic
Art Deco interior was fully intact.

A new owner paid $100,000 for it, and spent the next 12 years stripping anything of value
from the interior: copper piping, art deco light fixtures, marble slabs, and the concourse
clock. The building deteriorated from water damage through all of the broken windows.

The City foreclosed on it for back taxes, and the newly-formed Central Terminal Restoration
Corporation acquired it for $1 in 1997.

76


7. Central Terminal
For the next 6 years, the CTRC and its army of volunteers cleaned out more than 350 tons of
debris, relit the tower clocks, removed asbestos, repaired the roof, and installed temporary
weather tight enclosures in the window openings to prevent further damage. The original
concourse clock was found on eBay and returned to Buffalo.

CTRC started giving tours in 2003, and holding events in the concourse to raise revenue for
more restoration and repair work. It has even appeared on the SyFy TV Series Ghosthunters
a couple of times because of paranormal sightings within the building.

http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=93182

77


7. Central Terminal
This building has 523,000 SF and the site is 18 acres. It sits in Buffalo’s already challenged
East Side neighbourhood. What do you do with something this big?

The CTRC released a Master Plan in 2011 that sets out manageable projects with achievable
goals, with the ultimate mission of restoration and rejuvenation of the entire complex.

Some of the projects will include a green business incubator in the office wing, residential in
the tower, and the continuing use of the Concourse as a public events space. The idea of
reusing it as a railway station may happen if New York develops a high-speed rail system.

One of the first projects to be completed is the Urban Habitat Classroom, a site design
project on the front of the property to teach schoolkids about sustainability and regenerative
design.

Just like the Richardson Complex, Central Terminal is an intrinsic part of its neighbourhood.
Reconnecting the revitalized complex to its surroundings is key in all of the work that the CTRC
is doing.

78


7. Save Trico
One building whose future is still being debated is the old Trico Plant #1 in the middle of
downtown Buffalo. Trico manufactured windshield wiper blades.

Empty for decades, the current owner – the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus – has no use
for it. It wants to demolish and redevelop the site for expansion of medical research &
business incubator facilities. The building has 700,000 square feet of space.

This is on the National Register and a heated preservation debate has been stirred up over
it. Demolition was scheduled to start in April, but the discussion is ongoing as to what exactly
will happen with it. So we don’t know yet if this one will be shovel-ready, or preservation-
ready.

http://savetrico.wordpress.com/

79


7. Gates Circle
Another building in the same position is the former Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital -
located on Delaware Avenue overlooking one of Olmsted’s parkways. The Hospital has
relocated to a new building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. This collection of 11
interconnected buildings was built from 1911 to the 1970s. It has 882,000 SF on 11 acres of
prime real estate.

The Urban Design Project from the University at Buffalo is assisting the owner, Kaleida Health
with creating a reuse plan. In April, an International Design & Development Competition was
launched. I serve on the Project Advisory Committee and we drafted a community values
statement for the future developer so that the needs of the surrounding neighbourhood
wouldn’t be forgotten.

We will be holding a public meeting on June 20th to show the 2 proposals that have been
received.

Post-presentation note: the two teams presented their ideas this week, and the proposals
can be found here –
http://www.kaleidahealth.org/uli/

80


8. Meds & Eds – BNMC & The University
The last two buildings that I showed you have been affected by the rapid growth of the Buffalo
Niagara Medical Campus. This is the city’s medical corridor – a major employer with a concentration
of healthcare facilities in the center of the city.

This is what Catherine Tumber calls “Meds and Eds” – medical and higher education facilities that
many Rust Belt cities are developing as an economic revitalization strategy. She believes that
institutions can play an important role. That is certainly the case in Buffalo, where we have 7 colleges
and universities within the city limits.

Here on the Medical Campus, “Meds & Eds” are joining forces. University at Buffalo medical
researchers and students already utilize the facilities, but that is going to step up in the coming 5
years when the University moves its Medical school here. An international design competition just
selected HOK to design the new $375 million dollar school.

UB has just finished a $23 Million dollar educational building on the southern edge of the campus,
and built the Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences in 2006. Next to the Trico
building, a portion of that former factory has been transformed into a LEED-certified biomedical
business incubator.

81


8. Meds & Eds – future growth
This is what the Medical Campus looks like now: a 5-block area that is halfway through its
20-year master plan. This has become one of the biggest economic drivers for this city and
for the entire region.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute is here, one of the most important cancer treatment and
research facilities in the Northeastern U.S. A new 300-bed nursing home was completed last
year – the first urban seniors’ facility to be built here in several decades.

An $80 million dollar medical office building is starting construction, and the Buffalo Women
and Children’s Hospital is expected to relocate to the Campus in 2017.

There are about 8500 people working on the Medical Campus right now. That will grow to
about 12,000 when these new buildings are completed.

http://www.bnmc.org/

82


8. Meds & Eds – GVI & Hauptmann Woodward
The Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute – started by a Nobel Prize winning
scientist – and the new $291 million dollar Gates Vascular Institute – which replaced the old
Gates Hospital – were both designed by Cannon Design. The Gates building epitomizes the
collaboration between research and treatment, with both patient floors and medical research
labs housed in the same building.

This is where the idea of “Meds & Eds” really comes together.

The Medical Campus sits between two of Buffalo’s residential neighbourhoods, one a strong,
healthy urban neighbourhood and the other on the edge of the struggling East Side. A
particular challenge for the Campus will be to manage all of this growth while not having
adverse affects on its neighbours.

83


9. Rust belt to green belt - Solar
I mentioned earlier one of Catherine Tumber’s main points from her book Small, Gritty &
Green, about the potential for smaller industrial cities to reactivate their manufacturing sites
for greener technologies and renewable energy.

That will depend on how energy production evolves – if the focus shifts from large-capacity
plants to smaller regional ones, then Rust Belt cities could supplement their own energy needs
with their own production.

The Buffalo-Niagara region would be well-positioned to take advantage of this, and we’re
just beginning to tap into it.

Two solar manufacturers have opened up in Niagara Falls, and they receive low-cost power
from the New York Power Authority to help promote the state’s new $30 million solar-energy
initiative. New York State has been promoting renewables for years to both residential and
commercial customers. So there is potential to attract more manufacturers and further
develop the local solar industry.

84


9. Rust belt to green belt - Solar
The University at Buffalo opened its Solar Strand project in April: this project is raising the
profile of solar power in the region.

This is a 750 kilowatt solar installation that achieves two goals: one, it helps the university
towards its goal of carbon neutrality, which it established after signing the University
Presidents’ Climate Commitment.

And two: it creates a public space and gateway to the North Campus – combining
landscaping and energy production in an outdoor space with walkways and gathering areas,
and outdoor teaching spaces. It was designed by artist and landscape architect Walter
Hood, who won the design competition.

There is a live dashboard on the University’s website where you can see how much power is
being generated. The 3200 panels are generating enough energy to power 700 student
apartments. The landscape design is being implemented this summer.

http://www.buffalo.edu/sustainability/solar-strand/solar-dashboard.html

85


9. Rust belt to green belt - Wind
Wind power has tremendous potential on the shore of Lake Erie. This is Steel Winds – 14
200’-tall wind turbines generating renewable energy on a brownfield site - the former
Bethlehem Steel plant.

It was built in two phases – the first 8 turbines were operational in June 2008, and the last 6
came online in January of this year. Each one is 2.5 MW. The entire installation has the
capacity to generate enough power for 9,000 homes.

What we need now is to attract manufacturers from the wind industry – wind turbines have
thousands of component parts, and there are many different types of manufacturing
businesses that could develop.

http://www.firstwind.com/projects/steel-winds

86


Challenges for Downtown Buffalo
While Buffalo is having success in many areas, there are still a lot of challenges.

A major of medical device manufacturer – a locally-founded company with over 50 years of
history there - just announced that it will leave Buffalo for lower corporate taxes in Texas.

The loss of the Canadian Consulate this summer will be a blow to the local business
community. It fostered cross-border business relationships between Southern Ontario and
Western New York. That will leave behind 2 floors of vacant space in the 38-story HSBC
Tower.

This is a prominent piece of Buffalo’s skyline by Skidmore Owings and Merrill that is losing
several more big tenants in the next 18 months, quite likely including HSBC Bank itself which
leases 77% of the building’s 851,000 SF. That is a lot of Class A office space to fill.

There is a good possibility that this building will have to reinvent itself in the same way that
the old Dulski Federal Building did a few years ago. Its concrete facade was reskinned and
it was renamed the Avant. $85 million dollars later - now it has an Embassy Suites hotel, 3
floors of law offices, and 30 high-end condos – all but 4 have been sold.

http://www.avantbuffalo.com/

87


CONCLUSION
When you connect the dots and see how one project ties into everything else around it, the ripple effect has tremendous
potential.

More people living downtown means more businesses will follow.

One great restoration or adaptive reuse project inspires another, changing “shovel-ready” to “preservation-ready”.

Updating the zoning code will make it easier to do better and greener projects.

Success breeds success. It also breeds confidence, and that is something that this City now has.

Think big by thinking small: a lot of well-thought out small ideas can have a bigger impact than one big, really
expensive idea. Remember the Adirondack chairs: Lighter, quicker, cheaper.

Reframe the problems by finding one small thing that will inspire change – if you haven’t heard of BetterBlock.org, look it
up. That’s the kind of thinking that we need.

Projects get done – or not done – because of the people. This seems to galvanize grassroots efforts: people get behind
those smaller, neighbourhood-focused projects that matter, not the big magic bullet ideas that so many Rust Belt cities hang
their hopes on.
We have a lot of work to do, but the momentum is there.

I’d like to end with this video created by the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors’ Bureau last year, to promote the city
for the National Trust Conference. A lot of the people featured in the video are “come-from-aways”, like me, and they
have a great passion for the history and the future of this place. This really sums up the resilient spirit of Buffalo.

Link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT11IdWPvfc&feature=colike

88


…Lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration….
Jane Jacobs
The Death & Life of Great American Cities

[Q&A]
Thank you very much!

89

RAIC 2012 The Green Renaissance Of A Rust Belt City

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Mais procurados

Mais procurados (6)

Destaque

Destaque (8)

Semelhante a RAIC 2012 The Green Renaissance Of A Rust Belt City

Semelhante a RAIC 2012 The Green Renaissance Of A Rust Belt City (20)

RAIC 2012 The Green Renaissance Of A Rust Belt City