Digging the 700 Block
Construction crews are busy converting the 700 block of Main Street to two-way traffic. The project represents the first phase of a multi-year effort to return traffic to downtown’s pedestrian mall. The work stretches from Goodell to Tupper Street. Construction, started in late-August, will be be finished in the spring at a cost of $2.4 million.
The critical 700 block between West Tupper and Goodell streets connects the Theater District to Allentown and the nearby Medical Campus. The revamped block will include a center median and a bike lane. Diagonal parking is being eliminated.
Ansonia Centre is looking lonely on the west side of the block.
On the same block, Avalon Development is wrapping up renovations to a single-story building at 723 Main (above, rendering below). 4000 sq.ft. of the 5500 sq.ft. building will be occupied by Avalon Copy Centers. Based in Syracuse, the company specializes in business document services, legal copy services, large format copies, document imaging, electronic discovery and appellate publishing.
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gaustad
shaping up to be a nice block...hopefully it continues down the rest of main st.
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stephenjames716
^ditto^
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urbansoul
It is going to look GREAT. I wish the rest on Main would get some beautification. Trees, flowers. The sidewalks (those beige square tile looking things) look TERRIBLE!!
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phrank
Maybe this will finally give the reason to fill out the rest of the block with new development.
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sbrof
^ I thought the reason holding back the development of the north side was the old Vernor building.. I mean that was the excise given to allow it to be torn down.
The 700 block was a pretty nice block before this development. I do hope there is a plan in place to give the new trees enough space and maintenance to properly grow an mature. I fear that this street will never again have shade and leaves over it like it did before construction.
How many streets were reconstructed over the past decade.. to still have nothing but baby samplings stunted and struggling to survive.
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nyc
The trees were stunted on the 700 block previously. They were caged in 8'x8' planters and if you stood back and looked at them, they were kind of sad. Large trunks with small canopy. The new plan has continuous planters, a mix of tree types, flowering and ginkgos, and groudcover with irrigation beneath. There is extensive planting soil and structural soil beneath the sidewalk. They should do very well.
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OnRichmond
With the Vernor Building gone, I hope that the DOT is planning a curb cut for the new Trailer Park on the corner. It will be much easier for the residents to get in and out on Main Street instead of having to have to go south on Pearl every time they need to exit. St. Louis Church will look all the more Medieval with a village of double wides in its shadow.
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Joshua
It is nice to see construction going on downtown.
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Andrew
Does anyone beside me not want to see cars return to Main St? After living in Europe I really appreciate car-less streets and plazas. But I wouldn’t be against re-opening Mohawk or Genesee across Main. Many parts of Main are doing just fine with out cars.
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tjhorner1
I'm kinda with Andrew, which I'm sure will get me low stars, but whatever. Car-less pedestrian malls are a smashing success in Minneapolis and Denver (both service by free buses), two cold weather cities that have reinvented themselves in the past 10-15 years. Why can't our pedestrian mall be part of the reinvention of Buffalo, another cold weather city?
Our pedestrian mall is not what killed downtown. What killed our downtown was what is killing Buffalo, Western NY, and the rest of Upstate NY....big government and high taxes.
Let's use what we have to our advantage, and take the money it would take to reintroduce traffic to Main St. to instead assist and incent developers to invest and rehabilitate downtown instead. Doesn't that make a whole lot more sense?
I'm, just sayin'.....
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CRobs
Nice points by Andrew and tjhorner1, but the major flaw here is Buffalo is nothing like a European city nor Minneapolis and Denver. The afforementioned actually spent time, effort and most importantly; strategic planning money to eveluate the impact of vehicle-less streets. What they didn't do, was just blindly shutdown traffic on not only their city, but REGION's most bustling street. It will obviously not be an overnight transition, but Main St re-opening to traffic will eventually have a positive impact on the city hoping to once again look and feel like...well...a city.
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