Construction Watch: A.D. Price Senior Apartments

Can we EVER see brick (even fake brick) structures get built in this city???? The plastic look is sooooo 1980's and tacky.

nice tacky work. Savarino. I thought you were a "preservationist."

could BRO possibly post the image of what was torn down, going forward? I would love to get more of a record of the needless destruction of our City's heritage.

Is it too late the stop this project?

Craptastic

Not all new development should be considered "Progress" this looks UGLY. On what was once a bustling avenue of shops, theaters (a Main Street of the East Side) is now turning into a suburban plastic eyesore. How sad.

This is really a slap in the face to those living in the East Side. They are being told how wonderful it is to have new development going on in their side of town. BUT, all they end up getting is the worst looking kind of development. Cheap, no job creation after completed, car oriented (another slap in the face to LOWER INCOME individuals who most likely cannot afford a car). And all in all, are told everyday, by local leaders "how wonderful this will be for the community", like these people haven't seen BETTER!!! ...OUTSIDE OF THE EAST SIDE.

Some of you are out of your minds.

I appreciate Malone's humor and Really?'s realism, but some others here need a serious reality check. This project IS still a 'project' and I don't favor mostly for the reasons I oppose 'projects' in general. Those reasons include the circumstance that public housing warehouses and concentrates the poor and that public housing is needlessly expensive as compared to private, individual apartments. The private rental market could provide ample shelter for economically disadvantaged populations while simultaneously boosting the fortunes of neighborhoods seeking population.

But these new homes are hardly horrid. The generic 'projects' they replaced were ugly and scary. The cost of this phase is $158k/unit ($15m/95 units). While that is still crazy expensive in a city where $60k will buy you a nicely maintained double in many neighborhoods and $60k/unit will buy you good apartments in some of the best neighborhoods, at least this project is much less expensive than many other public housing projects. The taxpayer is paying, after all.

As for the tacky parking in front of those homes, it's unfortunate. But you'd be surprised at how many poor families own cars and demand parking these days. I agree that it would look a world better with lawn in front these homes instead of parking pads, but apparently those tenants choosing to rent here don't agree.

Why don't they put this kind of public housing out in the suburbs? Why build more of this in the city where there aren't any jobs?

Sorry if my previous "craptastic" remark offended thee. But these new builds do look awful, though admittedly what they replace looked even worse. These buildings are brand new, however, and are never going to look any better than they do right now. Imagine them 10 years or more from now. You can call it progress if you like, but then I'd have to agree with a previous post, that some of you are out of your minds.

This development is honestly one of the better ones for the east side. Much better than the tacky ranches that are already falling into foreclosure, at least these properties add density and some sort of street presence.

They could be improved and I wish they didn't remove ALL the trees for about 100 acres of the near east side to build them.

It'll require much more vinyl to fill in all those "missing teeth" :)

Can anyone comment on the following?

What really upsets me about this situation, which is a slight divergence from the architectural-integrity discussion, is that the Willert Park Housing Project (aka, A.D. Price Homes)had historical significance...and was the 2nd public housing complex in New York State to be built for a solely African American community.

It was recently determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by Preservation Buffalo Niagara.

http://www.preservationbuffaloniagara.org/docs/WillertDOE.pdf

Did Savarino just ignore that fact? If so, that is pretty disgusting in my book.

For 150k/unit, I would have to imagine that at least twice as many vacant homes, that are rehab-able, could have been brought back to life, at 75k per home that seems extremely reasonable. Most of these would prob be 2 family homes, so basically that would be 4x the amount of units. It could have put countless streets back together and got rid of a ton of blight.

my 'out of your minds' comment was pretty rash. Sorry.

I live about a five minute walk from this "development". I think they are cheap,looking crap. (Just an opinion by someone who lives in this neighborhood.) In ten years they will be falling down. I would like everyone to notice that the trash bins are allowed to sit in the front of the unit. I know of homeowners in the city who have been fined for having their trash containers visible from the street. Is this another double standard? I also think having parking spaces available in the front of the "homes" makes them look like trailer parks.

Savarino is not the General Contractor.

It was awarded to Kulback's Construction.