Meet Kenneth Jaworski. Kenneth is a Buffalo Ex-Pat, and runs an Amsterdam-based Interior and Graphic Design firm. He's also an artist and all-around purveyor of dead-on aesthetics and taste...depending on your taste.
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In the For What It's Worth department (albeit more for some of you, less for others) I met Jaworski last week when he was in town for the dual purpose of a Nichols reunion and scoping out material for a Buffalo guide book he'll be putting out in 2010. Jaworski has been living in Holland for the last 9 years, designing and picking up vast amounts of culture and knowledge from all over Europe and beyond. He describes architecture in Amsterdam as a vibrant thing, saying he lives "amidst the ongoing progression of architecture in all of its potential."
Jaworski caught up with me in Sweetness_7 soon after I'd talked to Wingate architect Bernard Zyscovich and developer James Pitts. As he spoke to me about his neighborhood in Holland, densely built in eclectic ways - a neighborhood that according to him "didn't exist 5 years ago because it was all water," an idea struck me. I called up two images on my computer - that of the Ciminelli proposal for a waterfront hotel, and the Wingate re-do Zyscovich designed. I asked Jaworski if he knew about the proposals and he didn't (he's a BR reader, but apparently in a spotty fashion).
Eager for his reaction, I turned my screen toward him and asked him to pick. It was a dirty trick to play on an Ex-Pat, but I felt his wealth of experience qualified him to offer an informed opinion as an ex-Buffalonian (he of the "Two Nations, One Bridge" slogan and campaign), an artist, a man of the world and a designer of interiors and facades. I had no idea what to expect.
First, his knee-jerk reaction, then his elaboration as I brought him up to speed on the projects background. And yes, I did send him back through the archives for some research reading.
Without giving it a full endorsement in its present form, Jaworski picked the Wingate, almost immediately dismissing the Ciminelli design as looking like a glass tower dropped on the waterfront, sandwiched by an Amherst medical building. By way of explanation, Jaworski felt that the Ciminelli design went after faux-modern without paying homage to the area or Buffalo's rich architectural history.
"You have to understand the vernacular of the city and the waterfrontand reinterpret it in a modern construction," Jaworski said. "God is in the details, with relationship of layers, scale and design. This proposal has none of these elements."
What about the Wingate? Acording to Ken, Zyscovich hasn't gone far enough with the interior/exterior aspect of the layered design. "Zyscovich hasn't won any risk-taking prizes with his design, but he could continue to develop it where it needs to go. A hotel on the waterfront doesn't have to be the next Martin house, but it has to be visually exciting, and I believe this design has that potential."
Jaworski said there are so many things that can be done today with innovative and "green" materials and so forth in looking for the wow factor of design, but he also said that he thought Zyscovich had at least started the dialogue on style. "A safe proposal is more likely to be built. I hope I'm seeing a safe starting point that will get toned up, rather than something that started 'up' and will get toned down," he said.
On that note, Pitts has said that he has sunk thousands of dollars into design, and as the designated developer (who has had drawings done and redone along with sending to Chicago for materials to show the planning board), he'll talk about redesigns as part of the process once he and Specialty are approved to build the Wingate. Pitts, who has also said, "Look, I don't bull****, and that's probably one of the reasons some people don't like me - because I tell it like it is," has said that he's willing to listen, willing to work at a design more people will like, but that he's not ready to throw any more good money after a "maybe".
For his part, Zyscovich has said that he had no idea new colors were being introduced, as per this Buffalo News story. "Color samples, designs back and forth," Zyscovich said. "It's not surprising that people have issue with color and the contextual elements, but surrounding the issue is a way to find the center." Zyscovich said he answered the assignment to look like brick Buffalo," but that there's room for change. Still, he says, "I believe in what we've put forward and the way it addresses the water. It's the 1st of, hopefully, a number of buildings that will fit a blue print for the future. It's not the end piece; it's the first piece."
Zyscovich also said that it would be a big help if the city could get the master plan in place, and that he would love to help the city toward those ends. He has allowed for the original street grid and the restoration of Erie Street.
"Buffalo is on training wheels again," Jaworski said. "It's a good opportunity to understand the vernacular and reinterpret it with modern construction and modern designs. You need people who are expert at incorporating the past into fresh buildings of today." Jaworski invites us to think of the waterfront in terms of the Memorial Aud, saying that one needs to see the ice from the orange seats. "The topography needs to be respected in that the waterfront should be looked at as a valley, with the city center being the highest peak. Then everyone has a good seat, with proper density and rhythm throughout. I call this urban topography, and I believe that needs to be respected here."
Pitts is bringing his proposal before the planning board again tomorrow.
Jaworski, who says he left for Amsterdam thinking that when he came back there would be a signature bridge to cross, asks, "What is important enough to prevent progress? Do the people involved in this decision have the power to do anything rather than hold things up?" He says that too often personal lives changed in small details becomes the guiding force, and makes note of the fact that in Holland, a democratic mixed group of well informed people who can speak expertly and intelligently to an issue are charged with carrying out plans. "They need to be 'in it' and understand," he says.
Ultimately, Jaworski believes that in order to have a reinflux of brainy youth, Buffalo needs to take some risks. "The willingness to make a big leap into the future will offend some, but make a large percentage happy. A risk, but a a very well thought out and well executed risk, can be inherently beautiful in its execution. You have to ask, 'Is this something we're doing for us right now, or is this something for our children?'"
Mr. Zyscovich is talented but can he provide a worthwhile design in a 'training wheels' environment? The Ciminelli design was bold by comparison and that's the problem.
Buffalo keeps settling for mediocrity in architecture/design as if it never really matters anymore. 'Just get it built' is the too common refrain. I'd be interested to read Mr. Jaworski's comments regarding what Buffalo can learn from the adventurous new designs of houses/communities in his adopted city. I've spent some time in Amsterdam and it's a community that seems to embrace change with an eye on the modern aesthetic. It's come a long way from its stereotypical Dutch heritage.