Real Estate December 16, 2009 4:10 PM

Summit Façade Work Starts; Hospice Facelift Underway

Summit Façade Work Starts; Hospice Facelift Underway
WCPerspective
WCPerspective 15 1

Work is underway to save the historic Summit Building's façade at 918 Main Street in the Allentown Historic Preservation District.  The City applied for and received Restore New York funding to complete internal demolition and façade restoration work.

The four-story, Richardsonian Romanesque masonry building is located next to the Red Jacket Apartments, south of Allen Street.  It is a former carriage factory built in the 1880's and designed by Cyrus K. Porter, a well-known Buffalo architect.  While the front facade is intact, the roof started collapsing over three years ago. 

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Nearby, Hospice Buffalo has begun renovations to its building at 892 Main Street.  According to a description of the work on the Preservation Board's June agenda, do not expect a major transformation:

"Remove existing canopy.  Install new aluminum storefront windows on first floor.  Install drivit (sic) on first and second floors and reinstall canopy as per application received 6/16/09."

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15 Comments Leave a comment
jstraubinger
December 16, 2009 4:45 PM
jstraubinger

Shouldn't the ZeptoMetrix project at 878 and 872 main St be just about finished now?

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JSmith
December 16, 2009 5:43 PM
JSmith

How does "install drivit" (not to mention aluminum windows) pass muster with the Preservation Board in a local historic preservation district?

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onestarmartin
December 16, 2009 8:54 PM
onestarmartin

annoying right? idiots

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Lego1981
December 16, 2009 10:16 PM
Lego1981

Um, so, no see through windows? And this is allowed how? I thought the goals of the Allentown Association and Preservation Board was to make sure "UGLY" projects don't happen? Yet, we have one building on this block already with mirror like windows and now we are going to have more...EWWWW!!!!!

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JohnQBuffalo
December 16, 2009 9:09 PM
JohnQBuffalo

well once the facade is saved, I would expect that the Summit find a developer. Allentown is taking alot of benefit from the Life Sciences Corridor and the opportunity to have all the benefits of a new interior with a historic exterior is a significant benefit. It would probably be cheaper to build a new interior at the summit than the redevelop the interior of the Red Jacket...though I can something positive happening to both buildings.

As for the second, I cannot even comprehend why dryvit is even needed. The facade has nice bones for floor to ceiling window. Why not simply do that and be done with it? Windows may be alittle more expensive but its a building, amortize it, depreciate it and pocket the benefit that proper curb appeal provides to the property value. Then again, this is Buffalo...a city that builds WWII cape cods long after the rest of the nation has moved into brady bunch split levels and keeps building 1970s split levels long after the rest of the nation has moved into mcmansions or low energy forms of green residential...

Oh well, its good news...I should just leave it at that

Its the curse of having to much love and to much loyalty to the place of my birth.

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Jas
December 16, 2009 10:48 PM
Jas

The owner of Cathode Ray will make it near impossible for any developer to accomplish something on the Summit site.

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Verdan
December 17, 2009 2:25 AM
Verdan

Interesting. Please tell us why or how the owner of a gay bar has the clout in Buffalo to do that.

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JSmith
December 17, 2009 7:02 AM
JSmith

Last I heard, it will be very difficult to demolish the back of the Summit leaving the facade because the equipment would need to have access from Pearl Street and would need to demolish a garage on the Cathode Ray property in order to access the rear of the Summit building. That's one reason the city was eager to just tear down the whole thing from Main Street.

I remember older redevelopment plans failed because apparently the owner of Cathode Ray would not even allow an easement for the installation of a fire escape on the rear of the Summit that would come down in their parking lot.

I found this article on the Allentown Association website:
http://allentown.org/Essays/Essay-2008-01-12-1/index.html

"In order to preserve the façade, demolition/stabilization of the structure must be done from North Pearl Street, trespassing on private property and demolishing a garage behind the structure for access. The owner of the parcel behind it must agree with those terms and conditions and want to help preserve the building. Eminent domain does not seem likely since demolition of the building can also be done from Main Street, but in that case, the façade could not be saved."

But it seems that according to WCP, this issue may have been resolved?

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benfranklin
December 17, 2009 2:37 PM
benfranklin

Funny, I was under the impression Cathode Ray was in the business of promoting rear access, not denying it. Some consistency would be nice.

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sbrof
December 17, 2009 7:14 AM
sbrof

Because the current blg only has exit access to Main st, but current safety codes require two means of egress. Developers have approached the city about renovating this building in the past but couldn't move forward because of the egress issue.

A solution to the problem was to use the rear of the building as an emergency exit but since the property behind this building is owned by cathode ray (or any other private entity) an easement would be required. It would basically say that you need to leave a certain width clear for emergency access through your property. You can still own and can use it but you couldn't do anything that would block people exiting the building in an emergency.

Since it is only a parking lot without any plans for development by the current owner it shouldn't have been a problem but he refused to cooperate and just said no.

His smelly and garbage infested parking lot (I lived down the street for 3 years) is SOO much more important than the reuse of this building... That is the back story.

Now that the interior has collapsed and it probably needs a complete gut and rebuild, they might be able to reconfigure the interior to create two forms of egress to Main St. So hopefully the building can be redone but it basically sat vacant for as long as it did because of Cathode Ray's owner.

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urbanboarder
December 17, 2009 1:08 PM
urbanboarder

I know the answer - purchase Cathode Ray.

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buffjeff
December 17, 2009 8:36 AM
buffjeff

I wish they would fix up Red Jacket. That could be one of the nicest buildings in all of Buffalo. It should be high end condos for the Medical Campus. Any word on that???

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onestarmartin
December 17, 2009 8:45 AM
onestarmartin

We watched the owners of Cathode chase prospective buyers off his parking lot, in the winter he pushes the snow of the lot against the back doors of the Summit instead of the curb. Mans a very ignorant person if you ever have the chance to talk with him. Pretty sure he was paying off Davis to get away with some of his s*it. But, it's better to have a smelly dirty bar that holds back development than an empty building, right?

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eliz
December 17, 2009 11:16 AM
eliz

Hospice did get rid of their chain link on the North Pearl side and put a nice gate there; they have also done some good landscaping on the back side. Given that they are a nonprofit with an important mission that must come first, I think they are good neighbors in Allentown. It's not like the building had not already had non-historic renovation from the union that was there before. Not sure that Hospice should be responsible for undoing all the bad work that was done for decades prior.

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scarmina
December 17, 2009 11:38 AM
scarmina

The current work is not an attempt to stabilize the building facade, but to open the sidewalk back up to pedestrian traffic. The scaffolding is being erected to provide a protective tunnel for the time being. Our firm, Carmina Wood Morris, PC is working with a prospective developer and the City of Buffalo to restore the 916-918 Buildings. Keep an eye out for Chris's updates in the near future.

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