Buffalo Rising Online

Great news about a new build over a surface parking lot. did they destroy that house at 287 fargo? that would have been a real shame.

im glad to see the school expand!..building looks pretty nice too from what i can gather

Edit: Did they destroy that house at 287 Fargo for surface parking like they wanted to

It is time for the college and the city to work together to build them a parking garage. The site just south of this new building would be a perfect spot because it is very central to the college and most of the adjoining buildings only have their services facing it. Which means it is a very ugly spot on campus. Put up a nice 6 story garage and remove the parking lots. At that point when the college needs to expand they wouldn't need to take down more homes but just build on their already huge amount of parking lots.

I wonder where "Pierce's Palace" used to be located on that site?

Living by D'Youville and also attending there, I can say that this will definitely look nice in the neighborhood. The only problem that DYC has is that it over looked the placement of the tower. Driving by there seems to be no room anywhere in that parking lot after this thing will be built. Then I remember the rumors from all the teachers stating the intent of D'Youville was to close off Fargo ave and build a cul-de-sac to create a closed off campus. This was probably the reason for clustering the building next to the library and the other buildings. On their website a few months back I found their plan for expansion in the west side. It read that they do attend to expand towards Grover Cleveland and stop at Normal ave. I approve of this because I feel it will strengthen the blocks in between Richmond and DYC.(mainly york st between normal and plymouth and then 14th st)

"but if DYU didnt knock down all those pretty buildings we could have had so much history to look at while on our way to pick up a dime bag from a dealer stationed in one of the houses!"

why do we always make these subjects black and white polar opposites? why can't we expect the college to grow and prosper AND take into account the neighborhood as a whole? why is place of "higher" education planning a campus with lame-brain solution of sprawled out surface lots?

I say give them Fargo for free in return for them building a parking garage in the center of the campus. they already have a two block park right next to it that they could "volunteer" to help upkeep for thier students. They could then build on the existing surface lots that are along Conneticut and West and connect via elevated pedestrian walkways if they wish for the colder months. But seeing that people will have to walk from outlying surface lots under this plan anyways, it's pry not even an issue/concern.

How is surrounding this campus with surface lots making it an island supposed to help the neighborhood?

Thanks Hamp and MJ for some intelligence.

Now if the City only had a plan to build upon strengths from within . Instead of building scatter-shot plastic houses across wide swaths of the city why not focus on rebuilding this neighborhood which has several natural attractions such as this college, close proximity to the lake, downtown ,and Elmwood Village and is filled with great architecture. Does that make too much sense?

Just because people criticize their approach to parking doesn't mean that they wish the institution to get out. There are better and worse ways to do everything. Life is one big gray tone. So while parking lots might have made sense in the beginning they have become a detriment to the rebirth of that area because they basically isolate the neighborhood from the positive effects that D'Youville would and should have on it.

This is why they should go up for parking. The space they would free up would give them room for expansion and growth for years and years. All at the same time providing a better and safer place for people to park their cars. Much easier and cheaper to police one spot instead of 15 spread around several city blocks.

D'Youville also needs a heart.. Some sort of college / public square within its campus that the students can congregate at. While Columbus and Prospect parks are near, they are unfortunately on the fringe of the campus. Part of the plan for growth should give the campus and also the neighborhood a place to come together and mile making both students and neighbors more comfortable with one another. This could incorporate outdoor cafes and food establishments from within the campus and the outside community. I am sure there are one or two places in the buildings to eat.. why not open these up to the outside and at the same time give the students and faculty and beautiful place to mix and mingle in the sun.

D'Youville is an asset to the community around as long as it doesn't become parasitic.. which it has recently. I think the attempt to take Fargo is an perfect example of this. I don't blame them since they probably have been going it alone in a fringe neighborhood for awhile but the city and its planners need to step in and come up with a real plan to curb the growth parking before that neighborhood has nothing left worth saving.

City built.. D'Youville operated.. guarantee that the public can use a certain number of spaces here if they wanted to visit the Armory, Front or LaSalle Park and put some of that rainy day fund to actually solving the problems instead of wasting it on union pay raises and workers who live in Orchard Park and drive to work in the city on the city's dime. Some Fire Chief guy got mad because the city took his precious car away. He didn't want to pay to drive that far into work, so he retired..

BuffaloBloviator - Dr. Pierce's Palace Hotel faced Prospect Avenue and occupied the entire block bounded by Prospect, Porter, Fargo and Connecticut. I just aquired a booklet that was published just after the building opened and details the entire structure from top to bottom. It mentioned a state of the art fire suppression system, which is ironic since the building was destroyed by fire when it was 4 years old. It was designed by Waite, the architect of the Livery on Jersey St.

Ramps would obviously be better than surface parking. But then DYC doesn't exactly have gobs of cash laying around. Growth at Dyouville is necessarily going to be a more piecemeal process than someplace like UB. If that means acquiring lots, using them for parking, and then eventually building on them, that might be the best we can hope for.

Buffalo Business First says that Medaille, D'Youville and Canisius are all landlocked.

Furthermore D'Youville admits this will be their last development project.

The solution is obvious...let Canisius take over the Medaille Campus...and let Medaille shop for a new urban campus...and the immediate sites that come to mind are the area surrounding ECMC and the Delavan American Axle plant both of which have access to the Beltway (if its reactivated) and have plenty of idle industrial land for a campus.

There is also the Buffalo Forge Site which is on the Canisius, City Honors/Masten Park, Larkin District corridor (but is not beltway or light rail accessable)

There is also quite a bit of land in the inner/outer harbor or in South/East Buffalo along Clinton (looking at a satellite map) but again not light rail accessable).

The perfect site for D'Youville would be a short distance away along the beltway between Tonawanda and Amherst at the old what was it Atlas Steel which they are thinking of developing for dormatories.... but if not there....then there is plenty of land along the beltway between Niagara Street and the Niagara Expressway which can be redeveloped for future 2nd campus or relocation.

Summary is that BLACK ROCK/WESTSIDE and EASTSIDE offer critical opportunities for keeping these urban campus's within the city limits...for whatever its worth, I dont think alternative urban campus's can be considered without major future committments to light rail expansion.

It woudl change the entire dynamic of blackrock, westide and eastside if the beltway were reactivated and the airport corridor built.

weiner --

1. "The solution is obvious...let Canisius take over the Medaille Campus...and let Medaille shop for a new urban campus." Who is doing the "letting" in this statement? You write as if there is some person or public body with God-like power to move huge institutions around the city like its a chessboard.

2. Beyond that, your solution is nuts. Why would Daemen want to give up its campus to "shop" for another one? Why would Dyouville build away from its already small campus?

3. Just because a campus is land-locked doesn't mean it can't grow. It just needs to buy or incorporate whatever is in the way into its growth.

Unfortunatley this campus is not land locked enough. We can see this through its ability to aqiure property and put in surface lots all around it. Any landlocking should be seen as a positive, as it promotes a more compact integrated design and forward thinking, not the easiest/cheapest approach. With too much free space you get a campus like UB North which is pretty much good for nothing but driving in, going to class, and driving out. I'm surprised they even bothered to build multi story buildings out there.

There have been number of articles on here about reinvestment on Conneticut St. I don't recall many highlighting how the investment planned on getting a big boost from D'Youville and that is a shame and a missed opportunity for both ends (the neighborhood and the school). A campus of higher learning should be open to all types of thinking and people. It should be integrated into the community and a partner with it so each feels the spin off from the other's sucesses. Where is the desire for higher purpose? Or is the goal to be another place where a high school grad can pay some money, get spoon fed, and leave with their piece of paper?

This campus could be providing a perfect bridge between Elmwood/Richmond/Klienhan's and Front Park/Lake Erie. The city and campus and neighborhood should be laying out what it would take for the the whole to be greater than the haphazzard sum of it's parts.

JPP,

Thanks for that useful information about the Pierce Palace.

I wonder if that historic section of the main building co-existed with Pierce's Palace before it burned?

Howard

1. I don't get this. DYC is building on a surface lot and yet people are complaining.

2. The idea that the college should benefit the neighborhood by "integrating with the community" is a bit naive. What does that even mean? Holding classes in someone's living room? The college benefits the neighborhood by bringing a few thousand people -- and their money -- into it on a daily basis. Hundreds of those people end up living in the neighborhood, paying rent and otherwise spending their loan money.

3. D'Youville isn't Harvard, or even UB. Money for growth is hard to come by. Cost is an issue. Their growth is going to be piecemeal, and won't involve big money plans like UB 2020.

Colin- I totally agree DYC is not Harvard but they do make a killing. It cost roughly $23,000 to attend this college. Many receive grants and tuition discounts so it averages around $17,000 a year to go to this college. I go here its expensive. I also know that a majority of the Teachers are considered part-time without a contract. Many of the only make around 30k. I know this people they complain and fight with the school every year to get contracts and talk about how little they get paid. For a rough estimate there are 3000 students at this school paying that much money is like 50m a year.

On the bright side DYC has invested some 70million to the west side in the last 12 years. D'Youville is the anchor in this neighborhood along with Richmond, porter and Elmwood. They hold countless clean up's in the surrounding streets, house paintings to the under privileged and they clean prospect park and take care of it like it was their own. For all the negative I have read I think dyc has proven to be invested and care about the neighborhood. Also this should be the last big expansion for some time according to DYC. They needed all the parking lots because there was not enough room on the streets surrounding the school and the lots they currently had, also they planned ahead knowing they were going to build on one of them. Heres the link to the information I spoke about on the investment in the west side. http://www.dyc.edu/welcome/news/article.asp?id=161