Downtown Housing Tour Properties Announced
You have read about downtown commercial and residential housing projects here ad nauseum. Here’s your chance to get inside and ask some current residents and business owners why they choose to call downtown ‘home.’
On June 28, the third annual Downtown Housing Tour will showcase the attractive, spacious lofts, condominiums and apartments that are available in downtown Buffalo. The event, 1 pm until 5 pm, is free.
Downtown’s new residents want to be in the heart of the city. They want to walk to work, sporting events, theater and dining, and do not want the responsibilities of conventional home ownership.
More and more buildings are being renovated into lofts, apartments and condominiums. The following properties, five of which are new to the tour, have signed-on to have units open:
-The Belesario
-Buehl Block
-Ellicott Commons
-Elsinghorst Building
-Historic Warehouse Lofts
-IS Lofts
-Lofts @ Elk Terminal
-Market Arcade Apartments
-Two Hundred Delaware
-Waterfront Place
-Webb Building
-West Village (Rabin Terrace)
-The Whitney
Not everyone is drawn by ‘new’ however. This year we will have several homes and gardens on Johnson Park, Buffalo’s first city park, on the tour.
The public will also be able to discover some of the revitalized properties that have beckoned businesses to downtown.
Commercial space at 210 and 295 Ellicott Street will be open for viewing. Also inviting the public to their renovated properties will be chocolate shop Choco-Logo at 141 Broadway, Washington Market at 461 Ellicott Street, and architectural and engineering firm Carmina Wood Morris at 487 Main Street.
CityView Properties will be showing off its plans for Genesee Gateway. The redevelopment of the Genesee Block located between Ellicott and Oak Streets will be underway this summer. Windowless and gutted for more than two decades, the high profile block will be transformed into a mix of retail and office space.
New Era Cap Company has taken up residence in the former Federal Reserve Building at 160 Delaware Avenue. The headwear manufacturer recently completed a meticulous restoration of the building and is inviting the public to visit their flagship store and headquarters. Building tours will be held every half hour from 2 to 4 pm.
Registration and maps are available the day of tour at the Market Arcade, 617 Main Street in the Theater District. The tour is self-guided allowing participants to explore the properties in the order they choose.
The Downtown Housing Tour, meant to expose participants to the changing face of downtown, is sponsored by Buffalo Place and is a key event of Buffalo Homecoming being held June 26 – 29.
Organizers are also still looking for residents of the above properties interested in showing off their units. Contact me for additional information.
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PaulBuffalo
These buildings are a clear reason why preservation in Buffalo is important. Adaptive reuse pays off and benefits the entire community. (It's too bad Pano's didn't learn this lesson before demolishing the Atwater house.)
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gaustad
Pano owned the house. If the preservationists wanted it-they should have moved the house to a different street.
He has followed through with his plans as promised. I would rather have a new two story restaurant on that block than a old house that "most" people don't care about.
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gaustad
These lofts are very cool, some day they will be sold as condos and the sellers will get rich. I would buy one in a heart beat. Renting for 1200 plus/month is a little steep
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PaulBuffalo
Most people didn't care about the Larkin Building until it was too late. Most people didn't care about the Darwin Martin House and yet the burnishing of this jewel will benefit all of western New York. It's true that most folks don't care about preservation. Unfortunately, it's an endeavor of the few that is appreciated by the many. For those that think preservation is a foolhardy endeavor, they can always savor the pleasures of Niagara Falls Boulevard.
I hope that BuffaloRising can report on this Downtown Housing Tour for its readers.
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MJWorthington
"He has followed through with his plans as promised. I would rather have a new two story restaurant on that block than a old house that "most" people don't care about."
we could have had both minus 8 parking spots.....
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GDC
So anyway, back to the Downtown Housing Tour....I can't wait to do this.
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Colin
1. The so-called Atwater House doesn't belong in the same paragraph as the Larkin or Martin House.
2. Preservation can be an important engine of economic growth, or it can be little more than a hobbyist's attempt at turning the city into a museum. The key is to differentiate between the two. People will travel here and pay good money to see the Martin House, and the rehabs listed may help rejuvenate downtown. What larger impact would keeping the Atwater have?
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mmiller
"2. Preservation can be an important engine of economic growth, or it can be little more than a hobbyist's attempt at turning the city into a museum. The key is to differentiate between the two. People will travel here and pay good money to see the Martin House, and the rehabs listed may help rejuvenate downtown. What larger impact would keeping the Atwater have?"
On a smaller scale, like for houses and small buildings, this is absolutely correct. I'd like to add that on a larger scale, buildings like the Richardson and the Central Terminal should be considered architecturally and historically important enough by the city, state and federal government to save.
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rubygreta
Who was Atwater?
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scooter
this is a very cool tour. fun to see alot of the new lofts and new construction.
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manski
Enough about the d@mn Atwater house people. It's gone... demolished. If it was so important to all of you, it would have been a good idea for you to have put together some sort of partnership or something and bought it. Instead you whine about what the person who owned it decided to do with it. Maybe some of you have learned a lesson - next time you see a property that you feel is historically or otherwise important to this area, buy it. Take some real action instead of just blabbing about it online.
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vgs
The Genesee Gateway could arguably be the most important developement in a very long time. This on top of what has already been happening on the east side of Main St (Ellicott area) could really take off as a mixed use 24/7 downtown neighborhood. And it is happening organically by private developers.
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GDC
you're right, vgs, and with the east side of Main Street being redeveloped, we can finally have a connection to the main core of Downtown coming back to life again. That area has been deserted for years and and for years noone would go east of Main street to avoid that lifeless, eerie feeling, now with it coming back to life we can feel like Downtown is expanding and more life to the area again that was lost years ago.
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PaulBuffalo
In New York City, Jane Jacobs fought Robert Moses on a similar debate. He sought to tear through Soho and build a highway. His argument then was that the buildings and neighborhood were unimportant. Build in the name of progress. Jacobs argued successfully that it is indeed these minor buildings that make up a neighborhood. After all these years, Soho charges some of the highest prices per square foot in the country and it buildings are now recognized as significant. It took years for this to happen!
Smaller buildings, like the Atwater, were/are important because they are part of the whole fabric. Preservation is not about making an area a museum; it's about keeping the character that makes a city unique. There are no new buildings, large or small, in Buffalo that are not being built elsewhere.
People will pay to see buildings like the Atwater. People will pay to live in buildings like the Atwater. Tearing down valuable buildings does nothing to improve the area economy. So many Buffalonians are looking for the big payoff, but it's the small actions that will have more impact.
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GDC
and SoHo is now one of the best and busiest Shopping Districts in Manhattan now, where 20 years ago it was the opposite.
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Colin
Paul --
I'm with you on the importance of preservation and all, but that's twice now that you've used wildly inappropriate and grandiose analogies in support of keeping the Atwater. Comparing Pano (or anybody) to Robert Moses is a low blow. Potentially destroying an entire an entire section of a city to build a highway to the suburbs is hardly the same thing as knocking down a single unimportant house to expand a business. If you were talking about the decision to build the 33 through Humboldt Parkway or the Peace Bridge Plaza fight, then I'd agree. But it seems to me that if you can't argue for your specific point without resorting to these outsized analogies, you probably don't have much of an argument.
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PaulBuffalo
Colin, I'm glad you value preservation. Yes, I could have used the local examples of the Humboldt Parkway and Peace Bridge communities. If I had mentioned these examples, then you would agree with me? Okay, that's great.
Niagara Falls lost its soul when block after block of small buildings were bulldozed. They, too, were deemed unimportant. The big picture is that we must recognize the importance of the small and I'll use all comparisons possible to make the connection. Sorry, but that's my drumbeat. Robert Moses didn't value the small -- that's the point.
The Granite Works is one recent example of the small. Because it has been saved, it will have a major impact on that area over time. The saved buildings in this article will also have a great impact. This is how neighborhoods are saved and improved. The old Riverside Men's Shop at Tonawanda and Ontario Streets is an important small building, but it's taken for granted. How long will it be before that building is demolished in the name of progress?
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Colin
Paul --
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the devastation of Niagara Falls happened as part of some grand urban renewal scheme, right? That seems totally out of scale with what happened on Elmwood. You might argue that one house here and one house there will eventually add up to something similar, but that process would take so long and would be so unlikely to happen that I don't think it bares mentioning. In addition, the Atwater was torn down to support the expansion of an already-existing business, while the destruction of Niagara Falls happened to make way for silver bullet pipe dream projects. Two different situations.
The Granite Works is a great example of preservation done right. And though it isn't some sort of megaproject, it is huge compared to the Atwater, in terms of sheer size, economic impact, and strategic importance. It made good sense to save it, which is why there was public money to support doing so. The same wasn't true of the Atwater, which in the end was just a house, no matter how nice looking.
The RMS building certainly shouldn't be torn down to make way for a Rite-Aid. But that building has a history and a strategic importance to the neighborhood that dwarfs that of the Atwater. Each case is different.
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brokeleg
dont we have a zillion houses like tthe one pano tore down? whatever yuppies we got bigger fish to fry.
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PaulBuffalo
Just because each case is different, do we rule out every comparison? That only stifles discussion. There have been many buildings in Buffalo that have disappeared one-by-one with little notice. One house here and one house there does add up to something and it does take a long time; but, it's worth it. If one of the buildings in this very article had been demolished, there would probably have been little resistance. However, look what creativity and hard work accomplished in these instances.
Does Buffalo have a 'zillion' houses like the Atwater? Nope, it was unique. Yes, there are many homes in Buffalo that are cookie-cutter, and losing a percentage of them is not a major loss to the city. However, the Atwater was special and seems to have been demolished for parking. The last thing Elmwood and downtown need is more of that. Again, Buffalonians continue to make the mistake of looking for the quick payoff at the expense of the long-term benefit.
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Colin
No, I don't rule out comparisons. But when they don't hold, they don't hold. In the end, I think you have to make an argument in favor of this specific building, rather than preservation as a concept. Even people who are already on board with preservation won't be opposed to every demolition.
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PaulBuffalo
Colin, you're not looking for a comparison -- you're looking for my development plan for the site. Preservation, as a concept, is valid. Unfortunately, Buffalo doesn't have an entity like New York City's Landmark Preservation Commission that can take on these individual issues. It's Buffalo's loss.
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gaustad
Personally speaking, i thought the Atwater House was a pile of sh!t. Can someone tell me what made it so special?
It looked like every other broken down, weathered house on Elmwood full of college kids playing beer pong and smokin dope.
People act like this house was some kind of shrine. So it was made of sand stone. What significance did it have? There are 1000 houses just like it. There was no value to the house.
Someone please explain why it was so importatant for this house to be preserved.
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