Plywood crews were swarming over the Statler today sealing up the grand dame on Niagara Square. Cleared of tenants by Bankruptcy Court trustees, the landmark is being mothballed. Workers from DeCarlo Enclosures are boarding the ground floor windows. Though at least one potential buyer is said to be interested, no one has stepped forward with a purchase offer for the historic building.
Pictures by fixbuffalo blog's David Torke.
DITTO PaulBuffalo - !!!! LMFAO :)
Does it make sense to make an eyesore? The building didn't have any open windows, broken door locks did it? How do they affix the plywood, screwing into? Does that damage the building? And how much id that costing us??? Sometimes I wonder what the hell goes on in the city and who's makeing money.
It's only a matter of time before someone threw something through a window now that it's officially abandoned...although an eyesore, and sure to attract graffiti, it's better than everything getting broken I suppose...
depressing.
where are all of the bashar issa cheerleaders now?
Could it at least be painted? Possibly a matching brick color? I fear making this suggestion.
While it may be distantly related to rearanging the deck chairs on the titanic... I'll first match your trepidation in making such a suggestion, and then be equally hesitant seconding the idea of painting the plywood. (...so it's not quite so obvious to the asian tourist snapping pictures of City Hall..."Is that painted plywood?"..."...they must be upgrading the facility"...yeah...that's it....)
Note this as the latest manifestation of a still proud (although increasingly difficult) Buffalonian's learned skill of making the best of a not so good situation. It will be a good day when that skill can be forgotten.
Agree, raw plywood ain't pretty.
We could paint it with huge piano keys, and romantic cafe windows with couples sitting at cozy tables, and ... oh, sorry. That's been done before.
Looks like the Silver Theatre riverfront hotel/ballroom scene in Wilkes Barre Pa - we have to be better than WB Pa. !!!
Perhaps Carl or Rocco or Uniland will step up. I seriously think someone is waiting for a bottom line price - or near give-way deal before they jump on it.
Is the building in that bad of shape?
I used to skip 8th period - study hall of all classes - at hutch tech and sit in the statler lobby sneaking a genny in a coffee cup to wait and catch the early bus back to the east side. 1975...ish.....
My parents went to events there for my dads company back in the 60-70s - we were allowed to go to a couple of them. It was like heaven back then.
I agree - they BETTER NOT leave the plywood up as is. NO WAY!
Great! We now look exactly like DETROIT!!!! Right across from a brand new Federal Court House, Historic Niagara Square, Convention Center and CITY HALL!!! I hope Mayor Brown's office has a great view of this massive empty building that is now being boarded up to show all of his out of town guests.
Leave Lord Byron's office number on the plywood - like on so many vacant houses......
He sure as hell showed up for the photo op for the Millard Fillmore Coin gig..... That is because that photo op had some potential state/national implications.
We have been moving towards Detroit standards for quite a while now. Wealthy living in condos and mansions along the waterfront surrounding blight, poverty and devastation in the middle. The only thing we have that Detroit doesn't is BRO touting the latest enclave being built for the rich (where they can live tax free to boot).
The tax holiday for luxury waterfront housing is an insult to every taxpaying citizen in Buffalo. The subsidy was unnecessary and excessive. The average person in Buffalo working to maintain or renovate their property has no such option and in fact pay more to in effect subsidize these tax evaders.
Let's have Buffalo ReUse paint some pretty flowers and faces on the plywood. Either that, or we could reuse some of the plywood from the Genesee gateway project. I'd love to see the "Last one out of Buffalo please turn out the lights" on one of the windows facing City Hall.
We can always paint in 'Fake Storefronts' on the plywood. 'Fake people' to make it look vibrant and hopefully fool some half blind out of towner into thinking this building is still in use. With all the other great projects happening, it's sad to see one of the largest buildings go dark right in the center of downtown. This is a very sad day.
If you think the plywood is ugly now just wait a month or two when its weathered and brown.
Well, I suppose the Mayor could have a Talkin' Proud logo painted on the boards.
Thought you guys were all gung-ho for properly mothballing buildings for a better day... That said, I have a hard time understanding the Statler's current dire straits. It was a perfectly functional, if low-rent, building until the bankruptcy uncertainly drove all the tenants out starting a few months ago.
Funny how AM&As has been vacant and plywood-free for over a decade but somehow this building in the shadow of City Hall needs protection? Thank you judge and trustees! Is there an award for civic stupidity?
BRO:
A stupid, sophomoric headline...and it has not generated a single thoughtful comment.
EricOak, perhaps, but there's not much poetry in plywood. A cheeky headline takes some of the sting out of the sad photos.
Guaranteed this building will be resurrected sometime in the future. C'mon everybody, Buffalo is no Detroit. Someone will come along. Why is it that every other building downtown seems to be in some sort of renovation and rebirth, every one other than the Statler? The Statler will follow soon.
People have commented on this relentlessly, and as a New York City resident, I see it through so many of these posts on BR...Buffalo residents are too down on their city. It is so absurd. You guys have a great thing going up there and you don't see it. the Statler will be saved sometime soon by someone...the building is spectacular.
You are right, Buffalo is not Detroit. Detroit is in much better shape, ands is still a major city. Buffalo needs to be compared to cities its size like Toledo or Grand Rapids.
Detroit has 900K people, yes. But they've lost 1 million people since their heyday. What kind of weird, stupid fantasy-land do you live in where Detroit is in "much better shape" than Buffalo?
I just spent 2 days working in Cleveland. Its east side makes Buffalo's east side look like Beverly Hills. I worked in Detroit last year for a few days - even worse than Cleveland. The suburbs just east of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland make many of Buffalo's suburbs look totally tacky.
Would someone (or a consortium of folks) step up and SAVE this building!?
This is terribly disheartening.
I live in Calgary, AB now and there are a plethora of new buildings and constant construction but I miss the historic and unique architecture Buffalo has. The Statler is truly a grand dame that needs to be properly restored ala Detroit Book Cadillac (now) Westin.
sigh... Wood Windows Syndrome strikes again. well, um... at least they were built to the curb...
We could always knock it down and turn it into a surface lot. No?
The plywood is a terrible idea - painted or not.
There is much to save on the first floor and much that could go missing with no eyes peeking in.
A cell phone company wants to keep the power on - how much would it cost to keep some high efficiency lamps on on the first floor to deter scavengers? I'll bet the cell phone company would gladly pay the price so as not to have to relocate their system. Some common sense is needed.
Send the plywood the Buffalo Re-Use.
I love the "knock it down and build new" comments at the News' site. The lot across from the Statler was a parking lot for decades until the courthouse got built. There are lots on Main Street (at Seneca and at Swan)- vacant for decades. On Lafayette Square across from the library- vacant. On Court Street at Franklin- vacant. All along Huron- vacant. Yet they believe demolishing this building will result in new construction! And when something new is built- it won't have five percent the architectural detail found in the Statler. Mothball it and wait for a capable developer.
I think that the rehabbing of the Lafayette Hotel and AM&As are two of the best things to happen to Buffalo in the past several years. They are smaller scale, do-able, very worthwhile projects. And personally I'd love to St. Gerard's Church moved to downtown Buffalo and not 900 miles south to Georgia.
But since at this point the plywood protecting the Statler is probably worth more than the Statler, I would think that anybody who threw any more money into that behemoth money pit would have to be an idiot or a scammer.
Sad but inevitable. The plywood looks weak but so do broken windows. There is now no better illustration of how threatened this landmark is.
I use to wonder how western towns could turn into ghost towns. We are witnessing the making of a ghost city.
get hold of yourself. It's one building.
Do you imagine it's the only building in Buffalo which ever experienced vacancy? Witness AM&As: The world didn't end, and better days are reportedly ahead. Or buy a condo in what is now City Center or rent an office in the Root Building or the second Key Tower (vacant for over a decade after construction) or Lafayette Court (empty department store) or the Cyclorama or Genesee Gateway, or LCo, or rent an apartment in what once LL Berger's or the University Club (how many decades vacant?) or a coffin factory, or one of Termini's many projects, or Granite Works or Seneca Paper. Stay at the Mansion (three decades vacant) and see a show at Shea's (where is that wrecking ball?). Do you think other cities don't experience similar closings from time to time? The sky isn't falling, chicken little. It's going to be alright.
Even if the Statler sits empty for a decade and even if one day it gets knocked down, this one piece of real estate is not the crystal ball which portends our future. It is what it is: a beautiful, though dated and challenged, large piece of architecture which doesn't compete well at the moment in the downtown office, residential and hotel markets. That's all. It's really not bigger than that.
This may be just one building. But it's as big as the whole Genesee "gateway" block. And this is every bit as much a symbol as the other project. This just symbolizes many of the things we try to deny.
Maybe we could give it to the Senecas. They can turn it back into a grand hotel and casino. High end restaurants and wedding reception halls. We can stipulate that they have to restore it, not rehab it. I know there are many against casinos in Buffalo, but isnt it better than a vacant building? And can Buffalo reap any monetary rewards from the income pulled in. Just a thought since UB law school was offered and turned it down.
The images of plywood on this building are disheartening, to be sure. However, the sudden doom-and-gloom pronouncements here about the city are melodramatic. This is a hulking structure that will require creative thinking regarding reuse but it will happen as more development takes place downtown. This building isn't going anywhere and the chances for real vandalism are unlikely considering it's right on Niagara Square.
Buffalo ain't a ghost town and, due to its great border location, it won't ever become one.
Reply to ranjenka:
Buffalo is not becoming a ghost town. On the contrary, it is downsizing, re-assessing and re-vitalizing. It will come out of this temporary (I mean extended) down turn smaller, stronger and much better. (And restoring and preserving Buffalo's unique, historic architecture is a vital ingredient in this re-vitalization). Think about it, we have in this area some things that many other cities would love to have. For instance, we have an almost unlimited electrical power supply (or we theoretically should have if it were managed properly) - the Niagara Falls Power Authority; we have as much fresh water as anyone could want; and we have good, educated people. Also, we don't have some of the big problems that plague many other cities in this country; i.e., large gangs, hurricanes, earthquakes, constant forest fires and ridiculously overpriced real estate. If you remove the economic factor (that's a big factor to remove, I know), I would label Buffalo as one of the 10 best cities in the United States. And while we're on the subject, since Forbes magazine has labeled Buffalo as the 8th most miserable city in the country, I think anyone in Buffalo who has a subscription to Forbes should cancel it immediately and also Buffalonians should stop buying that magazine in stores. Viva la Buffalo. Screw Forbes!
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Its now official, we are no better than Detroit. Way to go Buffalo!