With Mayor Brown's reform of Buffalo's zoning code soon to be underway, expect a major announcement soon we're told, Department of Economic Development, Permit and Inspection Services Commissioner Brian Reilly and his development and planning staff successfully urged the design team at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and David Homes, a builder that has worked only in suburban settings, to design a house that can be used as a model elsewhere in the city.
City staff worked with Extreme Makeover project designers and architects to build a green, modern, narrow-lot house that can serve as a prototype for sustainable infill development citywide and nationally.
"We wanted to make sure this house could be replicated in Buffalo," said Reilly. "My planners, particularly Chris Hawley, worked with them to make this house fit on the lot, fit in with the character of the neighborhood, particularly the massing and fenestration. Chris had some innovations that really affected the design of this house in a profound way."
The new home follows New Urbanist principles, can fit comfortably on a typical 30' urban residential lot, seeks green/energy efficiency certification, and melds traditional form with modern tastes and sensibilities. The house will be a model for infill development across the city and establishes a precedent-setting example of contextual fit, appropriate massing and height, proper "build to" line and a design that "addresses the street" and has a neighbor-friendly front porch.
According to Reilly the home will serve as an example of "proper form" regardless of the architectural style-- an important lesson for future development his department wants to stress and is often misunderstood.
Good urban places do not require all buildings to be of the same style. Older Buffalo neighborhoods have many examples of different styles, building practices and designs, but what makes the neighborhood a place people enjoy and even consider beautiful is the consistency of form that makes those differently styled buildings create a "place."
The Mayor's vision for new buildings within a new form-based code is they should be encouraged to play with style and design while maintaining the context-appropriate form. Many will be traditional and harken back to designs from prior times, some might be wildly experimental and respond to market desires that Buffalo does not yet offer products to, but all will happen on private land codified to achieve a uniform and high quality public space around them, one that people want to return to.
The Exteme Makeover team was on board.
"I actually was also hoping to build a modern house in the early stages as well," said Kim Lewis, Art Director for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. "As the exterior designer for a national television show, I am always pushing innovative and progressive design."
"Before we met with the City of Buffalo, I had hopes of building an urban, modern design," said Lewis. "However, it is common for cities across this nation to resist modern, edgy residential architecture. So often, cities want to keep their traditional neighborhoods consistent, and are reluctant toward change. The day our team met with the City of Buffalo, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the City was extremely open to creativity in residential design and was excited to see an urban house plan on a typical Buffalo lot. Needless to say, we were all on the same page from the start."
Lewis worked with Niagara Falls-based Polka Engineering to design and engineer the new home.
According to Lewis, "There were many factors to consider when drawing this house. Maintaining the 30' wide lot with a front porch was key to integrating this architecture into the Buffalo vernacular. Also, I felt that maintaining the front gable roof profile was absolutely necessary."
"To create interest and dimension on the front elevation, I pulled an entry tower out to the front porch, and sloped the front porch overhang," said Lewis. "Our show truly tried to respect the scale and character of the historical Buffalo architecture, while introducing edgy exterior applications like metal siding, board and batten, and custom cedar/suspension cable railing."
"We are proud of our accomplishment," said Reilly. "The handful of real changes Buffalo City Hall made to this national TV show which was part of my goal of maximizing the 'Makeover Impact' through deliberate and principled interventions, one of which was to create a design replicable on a typical Buffalo-sized urban lot."
What a great little house. Will we have the opportunity to see a floor plan and interior photos?