The 19th century building at center in this picture is likely nearing its end. It has been painted with what David Torke at Fix Buffalo likes to call the "red mark of death". He notes that the city paints these marks on buildings that it intends to tear down in the near future. So here we have just another crappy old building, that no one wants, ready to be hauled off to a landfill. Many will say get rid of it, the faster the better. Maybe they are right but what if they are not? This building is an increasingly rare example of the typical commercial buildings that once lined Buffalo's streets, numbering in the thousands.
Is elimination of the city's history the best path to rebuilding? Many say yes. Does the city have a plan for what buildings get demolished and which get saved? Is there a strategy for identifying historic buildings that might be important assets in efforts to form new neighborhoods in the wake of the massive destruction of more than 60 years of disinvestment? To many, this Near East Side strip of Genesee Street is out of sight, out of mind.
It is a place most never venture to, mainly because it is on the East Side. That would be bad enough but, even worse, this building falls on the wrong side of the suburban auto centric barriers of the Kensington off ramps to the north and the Elm Oak Arterial to the west. With these impediments in place, it is easy to devalue a run down building such as this and the Near East Side neighborhood it inhabits. But take just a few minutes studying this area and you can see the tremendous potential and importance of this neighborhood and this building to the city's future.
First, this building sits just 4 short blocks from the Genesee Gateway Project. That quickly moving restoration project is bringing life back to a row of formerly dilapidated buildings similar to this one--buildings that just a few years ago faced a similar fate as well. Several other recent projects have transformed that downtown edge into an up-and-coming part of the city. 311 Genesee is also about the same short distance from the recently announced location for the massive University of Buffalo Medical School relocation and expansion. 311 Genesee is set in a strip of city street that has had many buildings removed but still has many great examples of historic urban 19th century architecture remaining.
With planning and forward thinking, which uses these valuable and irreplaceable buildings, a compelling urban streetscape could be reborn in this area. But this will not be possible if these buildings continue to be removed year after year. Bit by bit, the city loses its unique history and character in favor of bland suburbanism and emptiness. Buffalo cannot compete with the suburbs on suburban terms. If that is the plan the city is doomed to continued failure. This is one old, forlorn building. It is not a landmark. It is not a masterpiece. It is simply the kind of indigenous historic building that can help rebuild a unique city neighborhood that can attract the kind of people that cities thrive on. Surround downtown with successful neighborhoods and you will create a thriving downtown. This is where you start, with this little building.
Check out this
short Google slideshow of nearby buildings on Genesee (sorry no music with this
one). Tell me you can't see a great street here waiting to be made. Or,
we could make some more parking.
Steel> he 19th century building at center in this picture is likely nearing its end.
Sigh. That looks like the most distinctive of the bunch, too. Buffalo really doesn't have the concentration of smaller mercantile structures compared to peer cities. The frame-house-with-a-storefront vernacular in Buffalo is once of the city's shortcomings, but for some reason those types of buildings live on while the solid brick mercantile structures end up in the landfill.