Bernard Zyscovich, Beyond Wingate

Bernard Zyscovich, architect, urban planner and designer of the latest version of Specialty Restaurant's Wingate Hotel on the Buffalo waterfront, made the front page of the New York Times business section yesterday.

Before you make note of the fact that the headline contains the words "Stalled Project," consider the economy, and go on to read what Zyscovich has to say about urban design in general. Also look at the fact that he created the complete master plan and wrote zoning and design guides for Midtown Miami.

Just for a moment, imagine that Zyscovich spoke this line about Buffalo's waterfront: 

"It's an interesting case study of how you can regenerate a space that's been vacant -- that has made no contribution to the neighborhoods around it -- into something more vibrant.  It's like an infill project on steroids."

Imagine our waterfront too, when you read the following phrases:  

...the site, which was until only recently the largest remaining undeveloped piece of land in the city's core.

...streets that are connected to the grid of the surrounding neighborhoods.

...the project has won praise for helping knit together two other neighborhoods.

He said he was disappointed that the buildings were built in "hopscotch" style, with empty lots separating them.

In a phone interview, Zyscovich made almost those same remarks about Buffalo's waterfront.  It's not because he plays one tune only, but because he's a studied and true urban planner, and he gets the concepts of integrated planning, density and destination along with respecting the original grid of a place - as planned for its necessary connectivity.  But to say he simply gets it is too simplistic; he has been part of it. 

In answer to whether or not he can be sensitive to Buffalo's esthetic, Zyscovich says, "In addition to Florida, Louisiana, the Bronx and the Hamptons, I've been successful in South America, the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, Tobago.  But people love to label. I'm not the one talking about my reputation national, international or galactic level," Zyscovich says.  

"I don't know everything about Buffalo, but I know several things.  I worked on AM&A's, and it was a good project, but they just couldn't pull off.  Look, you've lost almost half of your population, and you seem to have an administration who's in the business of taking down buildings. It hasn't reached critical mass, but people aren't flocking in and investing in the city."

Zyscovich gives an example of some of his past work: "South Beach...In such bad shape, only $300,000 was being asked for a hotel with 80 rooms on Ocean Drive."  The area was a desolate mess according to Zyscovich.  Then the city added 5 feet to the sidewalk on the street side.  The hotel was purchased, a restaurant moved into the front, renovated the lobby, put cafe tables on the sidewalk, "and suddenly there was this Bohemian atmosphere.  2 hotel restaurants, then 5, then 12.  One project dosn't make the turn-around, but anticipating that first project can.  And if it's successful, there'll be somebody else."

As for the Wingate, Zyscovich said that we can plan on seeing new redesigns, but they would remain the same height.  As a cautionary tale to building too high on the water's edge, he referenced places like Rotterdam, who he says has moved their port three times and Hong Kong, where they built tall on the waterfront and then filled in more land on the water side of those buildings and built again.  "I'm looking out my window on Biscayne Bay, and almost everything I'm looking at was built on filled-in land.  It takes years of approval."

Zyscovich talked about Shanghai Reds and their surface parking lot, something heavily in contrast to Zyscovich's own tenets of new urbanism.  "[Specialty Restaurants] do this all over the country.  They create a destination restaurant on the water's edge or near an airport - less involved with the city, on the outskirts.  They're not known for integrating."

For someone who has built his career on integration, the question remains as to how Zyscovich sees this particular parcel of land's place.  How can Specialty's holdings be integrated within Buffalo?  "It's hard to expect that one project on its own will turn this area around," he says.  "The thought is: How does it fit into a bigger idea, with an ultimately filled-in building developments in the waterfront district?  It needs the right tone to make it a destination.  How to redefine parking layouts, bring people in for evenings and lunches?  It's a positive and strong project, but still just a hotel and restaurant, appropriate for beginning to draw people."

The first design submitted for the Wingate Inn was already troubling to the general public when Zyscovich came in to do the redesign, and he had his work cut out for him.  First there was a standard for a Wingate design that he had to overcome, then there was the public outcry for something better.  "I read the early blogs (you people love to blog), and when I attended meetings about this project, there was a good feeling in the room; my clients were making a real effort to understand. I had two [issues], the first dealt with how I felt about the project because it looked so suburban.  The second was that there was no context to the building, and so there was the idea of bringing Erie Street down, as a hinge to hang the project onto."

Wingate is a hotel brand, as Zyscovich notes, he says there's nothing inheriantly wrong with it save for its suburban prototype, but he also says that everyone involved understands how that doesn't meet Buffalo's waterfront needs.  "There's no sense of consensus, and we're looking for a transitional design - not renovated industrial or trendy modern.  It uses the vocabulary of Buffalo with more modern ideas - 2nd level glass stories, terraced rooftop over retail.  There'll be more redos, but hotels work on the grid of room layout. Right now, looking at from the Ciminelli and Pitts points of view, one person has a contract and is resubmitting in good faith on everybody's part to say, 'Okay, we'll do this more urban design, with permission to play with Wingate's brand, other than logo and signage.'"

And he'd like to dialogue about the plans more.  "The first meetings were good; the second [in council chambers] was a presentation with a lot of control, and little or no communication with the audience.  Still, I have to make a completed design, notwithstanding the slurs.  It will be beautiful and stylish."  As to the general public's lack of love for the hotel's current design, Zyscovich says,  "I have a track record and reputation, but there's never been a dialoging opportunity.  Dialogue is healthy.  It always gets down to public meetings to decipher realities."

Noting that the area now looks like a suburban office park, Zyscovich says that the Wingate project has the potential to be the first step in series of steps that will provide the framework for future development, to spur things along.  The architect's challenge lies in coming up with a design that Specialty Restaurants and the community will be able to live with.  "At the risk of being brutally honest," Zyscovich says, "Buffalo doesn't necessarily bring investment that could be risky, but it has beautiful resources and needs to begin something."

Zyscovich says that retail for the hotel design is not definite, but that space will be constructed for the sake of intention.  "By the time this is done, if there's not a bookstore or café, there will be something.  Absent waterfront retail, this is an opportunity for other space - a draw, but it's really hard in an economy like this for someone to take the risk on a place with so little foot traffic.  It's essential for the city to look at the future of the entire area."

To those ends, Zyscovich, who says he hasn't talked to anyone in city government yet, stated that Buffalo calls out for a comprehensive, overall plan. "The city needs analysis.  Who are we, what do we want to be, how do we get there?  This city bears the historical signature of a Joseph Ellicott designed street grid.  You need to stop demolitions and recreate neighborhoods.  The thing Buffalo has that so few other places do is high quality neighborhoods.  

"Buffalo has the right bones.  [A comprehensive plan] is more than lipstick and rouge.  Do you need a Bass Pro? [Hopes for revitalization] can't be put into looking at 'the one thing.' You need redevelopment of neighborhoods.  Look at your Elmwood Village; those are the same buildings they always were, and any plan needs to address what exists in a comprehensive way, with set regulations in place.  The economy sucks, so this is a good time to do that.  This project represents a piece.  You're a waterfront city.  It's a beautiful site, but totally messed up as far as I can see."

Zyscovich goes on to say that when everyone jumps on the "one big thing", it tends to make the issue emotional, and prospective builders will "go someplace easier to do a deal.  Instead of being the victim, be the winner."  Part of that, he says, is achieved by talking about projects civilly and objectively.  "There is an unnecessary fight here.  South Beach was redeveloped by people from New York working with people from South Beach.  Welcome development, with the city laying down the rules of engagement as clearly as possible, and then you can make the city what you want it to be."

Through studying old maps of the city, Zyscovich says that bringing back a street will reweave the network of the city.  Having done this type of planning before, he says his first thought was to protect the site where Erie Street cuts through a piece of the city offering.  It takes land away from offering, which changed the design right away, but he asserts that it's appropriate to put the street through and get the rest of the property in position for a new urban grid that will allow low buildings on both sides of the street.  "The waterfront faces the basin, Veteran's Park, and connects to Canal Side; it would potentially create double-sided waterfront.  It needs city involvement to take land, establish a right-of-way, and make this the first block of a commercial street that demands buildings be low on the edge of the water.  People want to see the sky and boat masts; a high rises would be urbanized and chic, but I don't see Buffalo's waterfront getting that sort of traffic."  

That advise comes from Zyscovich free of charge.  As for the Wingate project, he says, "Buffalo is beautiful, I love it.  I'm fascinated by the challenge and opportunity to do work where some number of small acts could have dramatic results.  Just like with boating, If your not moving, you're going backwards.  Some things need to happen.  If they do, the city will develop good PR.  It can be done."

Of Buffalo's planning in general, Zyscovich says, "I would love to be involved.  I see this as more than a [request for proposal] hotel project.  The real opportunities are in the bigger moves - the reconnection of the original grid, block by block, and with façade improvements.  If you can do this, five years later it will look like a different city."

Zyscovich references the work he did as part of the planning team for Loews Hotel in Miami, where putting back a street (16th Street) changed the face of blight and slum on a too-long block.  He pointed out street design in Barcelona, Spain, where the master planner, in 1869, cut the corner of every curb at a 45 degree angle, creating little plazas that have continued down to the waterfront.  In addition, Zyscovich mentioned his involvement with ArtsPark Circle in Hollywood, Florida.  It all plays into the idea of creating districts, rather than stand-alone destinations.

But Zyscovich would like to see one thing happen before he goes to his drafting table again: "We have to find way to have some kind of forum.  I'm into it, regardless of the noise.  Ultimately, something has to happen."  

Image: New York Times