Summit Building Façade to be Spared

While this is good news, I question the fact the work "could be" started this year. Do they honestly think that it is going to survive another Buffalo winter when the roof began to collapse over 3 years ago?

thanks... but where were you 3 years ago to fix the hole in the roof so that the building could be saved over just its facade.

Either way I am happy that, at least, the facade can be saved and the removal of the interior building will probably make reuse a lot easier.

What about the rear facade?

good to see, i walk by this building all the time, work on the previous block and live just a few blocks away. I've always wondered when they would do something about it before you either lost the building entirely or it collapsed and caused someone injury. The reason they aren't sure when they'll be able to get started is because they're not sure when that grant money will come in. It's great that we applied and were approved for a grant that can be used for this cause, but once you're approved for a grant it's essentially a waiting game. the city can't start preservation of the building until it has the money in its hands... and unfortunately money seems to move pretty slow nowadays.

this could be a pretty intriguing investment for a developer with the right vision. you basically have the freedom of building an entirely new, modern building from the ground up with the bonus of having a 19th century facade to give it character and historic relevance... could be a lot of fun for the right person with the right checkbook...

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Appears to be a tree or two, growing within. The City has had this for 10 years - there's no excuse for allowing it to deteriorate this way.

The City of Buffalo has by default become one of the largest property owners and should put in place a plan to manage these very important assets. A team capable of assessing and securing the properties followed by a triage team with special attention given to temporary roof repairs would go a long way towards protecting these structures for future re-use.
We continue to demolish the very best we have along with the junk. Our unique old buildings are a finite and irreplaceable resource that should be preserved. It is the one thing we have to attract and inspire residents and business to come back to the city.

I think its a very smart move for our future.

Its only going to make this long contiguous main street frontage more valuable for redevelopment by the expanding life sciences district.

I own one of the properties that the rear facade abuts, whom do I contact about what exactly the plans are as it impacts my property?

Blackrock, you just don't understand: The Preservation Board is responsible for the roof collapsing because they failed to put this building on a list. The City can't be expected to maintain its own property without be told by somebody else - that would involve City employees paying attention and maybe doing their jobs.

I think I'll stop making repairs on my house until some entity makes up a list; it won't be my fault if the chimneys fall on somebody.

A list is impossible to create because it becomes static. The city would take such a list and just go and demolish everything not on the list.

Also, much of our history is still hidden, behind vinyl, in some old book yet to be discovered. That you can't just make a list and hope that it solves our problems.

A list would be useful but it would also need to be amendable and it still wouldn't stop the last minute fight because inevitably something will have been overlooked or new circumstances would arise that put a building in danger when it wasn't at the creation of the list.

The only benefit of such a list would be for the city to say... well it's not on the list, so down it comes.

tear that dump down *

Karl says the City instructed the Preservation Board to establish a registry of some kind. When was this? I searched the Snooze archives back three years with no success.

It was before Reilly was in charge. It is not in the News it was never communicated through public channels, this would just entrench the PB. It was communicated through memos regarding to and from the Commission of ED and PB. FOIA it.

The idea the list becomes static is absurd. I commend Blackrock, that is the type of effort everyone is looking for, you get buy in at the local level and it gives the City a priority list to work from. It is a team apporach, bottom up.

The next step communicated again to the PB (not my words, but I agree with them) is to apply buildings at the top of the list for National Register status and/or state status which would protect the top tier buildings on the list, preserving their legacy from any demolition. This would reduce he said/she said as NR status is the gold standard.

Criticize it all you want, but it is a solid model with buy-in from multiple stakeholders, reducing knee jerk reactions to demolition by a proactive, strategic approach

Oh, my, god! The roof actually IS collapsed and that is a very OLD, unprotected brick exterior.
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And it is extremely windy, again... And winter is coming soon, again...
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The pic above does not show the barricades (which are much too close to be safe.)
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There shouldn't be any kids living in that area, but, do school buses pass by or drop off kids anyway near 918 Main Street?

Save it or knock it down, it doesn't matter to me. JUST REOPEN THE SIDEWALK! How long has it been closed off for now? A couple of years?