As the Brick Crumbles

Another parking lot for sure.

You save a lot of energy by allowing nature to demolish the building.

another example of the broken system. This has been in the housing court system since 2001, 8 years for nothing. Waste of time, tax payers money, and our history.

It's clear that the deterioration has been going on for some time - you can see it on Google Street View, the photography for which was done a year ago, I believe.

Being a distance runner, I get to experience the weather up-close-and-personal year round, and after being out in Sunday's weather I knew there would be bricks shed somewhere - unfortunate that it was this building.

I'd love to see the Diocese create a trust fund which could be tapped for preservation work on their former churches.

What a shame

The Witness group is the same that almost let 591 Delaware get demolished, before TRM took it over.

On December 27,1983 a propane explosion blew apart the lives of hundreds of people in the neighborhood of the Sacred Heart Church. Five Buffalo fireman and two civilians lost their lives, many were injured, and hundreds of people were displaced because their homes were destroyed.
The hand painted glass (from Germany) was blown out of both sides of the church building. The windows in the school, rectory, and convent were blown out and the entire area surrounding the epicenter looked like a war zone. Politicians from near and far came rolling into town promising to make whole the neighborhood which had been rent asunder. An entire fire department was left in mourning.
Shortly after the explosion occurred, I purchased a mid-nineteenth century two story brick building at the corner of Emslie and Clinton. I bought it from the grandson of its original builder. I've lived and worked in this space for the last quarter century. Nothing fancy, not a high budget rehab, just what I could afford when I could afford it.
Over time I've become part of the neighborhood which encompasses people from all strata of this cities population. We've got the drug dealers, the pimps, and the hookers. We got gang bangers, school teachers, fireman, and chefs, bus drivers, retired steel workers, veterans, and ex-cons. I've become a part of the George and Velma Holt family, the first African American family to integrate the Sacred Heart school and church. Together, we are the survivors of a devastated community.
For twenty five years I've watched the slow decline of the Sacred Heart complex. I looked on as neighborhood "recyclers" dismantled the beautiful pipe organ, tossing tin pipes off the choir balcony and flattening them into movable pieces to be hauled off and scrapped. Architectural thieves made off with countless artifacts

Inch by valuable and irreplaceable inch Buffalo ships its unique heritage off to the dump.

Part II
and City Building Inspectors paid innumerable visits and wrote up endless citations for code violations. In the end, except for a lot of talk (including myself) no one gave a rats ass and the structures are finally giving way to time.
When I first moved in, I got my friend and architect, David Stieglitz, to survey the buildings with an eye towards saving and renovating them into an arts/theater centre. The rectory and convent would have made great living quarters, the church, a theater/performance space, and the school would have been easily transformed into studio spaces. David estimated (in 1983) a cost of 1.5 million dollars. The central boiler system was still intact and the bells were still in the tower. (The bells were taken by a couple of well organized bell thieves with a crane in broad daylight).
Two points to all this rambling:
#1) What has happened to the Sacred Heart complex is what is going to happen to all of the other churches recently closed by the Catholic Church. It takes about twenty five years. I won't be around to see it but neither will most of the people who made the decisions about closures. The City of Buffalo will be stuck with the bill for demolition just as they will be stuck for the demolition costs for this place. Before the Church walks away from another building, I believe they should be required to post a "demolition bond"
in pro-rated dollars. They haven't paid any taxes thus far, they should at least pay for deconstruction. (Speaking of which, the wood trussing inside the church is amazing and should be salvaged by Buffalo Re-Use. There are tons of material which could be salvaged instead of being hauled off to a landfill.)
#2) Look closely at David Torke's photo at the top of this posting. While it is not clear from his photo, the wall atop the window on the second floor is being held in place by a single stack of brick on the right of the open window frame. Who knows what will bring that wall down and where it will land. When it collapsed four days ago, building debris missed hitting the adjacent house by three feet. The occupant who lives in that house was frightened then and remains so.
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THIS BUILDING REPRESENTS A DANGER TO OUR COMMUNITY.

damn pity

Another demonstration of the toothlessness of the Inspections and Housing Court process.

If you own a building in the City there is nothing to stop you from demolishing it by neglect. It may take you a few years, but that's the way to do it. No doubt about it.

I hate to start the new year out on a such a cynical/pessimistic note, so I'd love for someone to cite a case that proves me wrong.

This ain't just a Buffalo phenomenom. In NYC, developers will buy a historic property and gut it of its distinctive architectural detailing so the Landmarks Preservation Commission will be left with little reason to protect it. Then they let it rot until most opposition to their condos dissipates. I'm sure Torontonians can tell a similar tale. What's stupid is that Buffalo has so many shovel ready sites and crappy surface lots that this need never happen here and yet...