Buffalo Rising Online

ok, now tell us the real reason for the ramp

show us the architectural renderings for the Iskalo midrise residential tower

So they're creating a suburban office park in the city as the parking ramp is directly connected to the Electric Tower in the rendering. While I'll get attacked for being an "armchair" architect, this does nothing to create depth in the business district as the corner will be dead. All that this would take to be urban friendly is a usable first floor but as designed in the rendering this will just be one more opportunity lost to rebuilt the urban fabric that Buffalo used to have. It's sad that we can't or won't do better.

And if Iskalo is planning a midrise residential tower then why not add a 5-10 floors and make it a mixed use office and residential tower.

yeah it is a step in the right direction, ramps are more efficient than surface parking lots and will add density to an area ONLY if it means that current parking lots are going to become available for development. Does this ramp mean their rather ugly surface lot right behind the electric tower is going to disappear? I sure hope so but unfortunately it is probably just going to become an addition to the downtown parking scene.

If they were really looking to build a tower, incorporating it into the parking structure would make a lot of sense, you already have to build the foundations and everything, why spend money on that twice.

If downtown really needed more parking that I would be in favor of what al is proposing. Specifically, adding stores to the first floor. Although, as I am think about this, I believe the Ausperger Ramp has retail space on the first floor and I don't think it has ever been filled. So, I am on the fence with this one.

Regardless there shouldn't be a ramp that takes up a whole block, this should be a mixed use space.

This aerial REALLY shows how one and two floor structures contribue nothing to any downtown. Take a look at the entire right hand column of the photo. All one and two story buildings. Wonder why east of Main downtown struggles....it's been underutilized. Look at areas west of Main and, yes, there are surface lots.....but the majority of the development is multi-floor structures. That's the density that lead to things like Spot, Starbucks, etc.

The Ausburger's retail space is actually on the 2nd floor along Huron. I'm not positive, but i believe they were told they were required to incorporate retail space - and decided to throw it into the less valuable second floor. Incredible that this was allowed to happen. And there have been zero dollars put towards marketing the space.

It would be nice if some private-sector employers moved into the Electric Tower as well...

There were published reports that Stantec and GZA GeoEnvironmental had leased a total of 24,000 sq.ft. last year. I checked their websites and they had Cheektowaga and Amherst addresses. So either they haven't moved in yet, or the lease wasn't completed. I'll contact Iskalo for an update.

According to Iskalo: "Stantec is not a tenant at the Electric Tower, GZA has already moved into the building. They occupy the 10th and 11th floors and have since September. They must have not updated their website yet."

This is the arterial edge of downtown. All the buildings between Elm and Oak are one story office buildings with a one way areterial on each side. It is what is currently is and is a pretty efficient design without being a massive elevated/sunken freeway (thank god it was never built). We should expand on its strengths.

If anything I think having most of Oak being parking structures directly off the arterial would be the most efficient overall design. It is then only three blocks to Main St. from any of these ramps. Work on the density in that three block gap with no need for ramps within them. Oak will not be a pedestrian wonderland within the next 50 years. But working on filling in the blocks between it and Main would be a great feat. Esp all the surface lots to the north of the Electric Building. We would have a convientent to get to and park at core with a very urban atmosphere for the area's people (living, working or visiting) to experience. An unecessary amount of cars would then not need to venture into these blocks.

I think the ramp is a great fit at this location.

The ramp idea is fine, I have seen in a few different cities where the top floor of ramps are used for a recreation area. If the roof is a flat top, you could have basketball courts, soccer field, tennis all on the top floor while it would have a safety net all around to keep the sports equipment on that floor and not the street below/ Ask Iskalo what he thinks

Someone here said that the ramp is directly connected to the Tower in the rendering -- I don't see that. It looks like it's a block away, and not connected.

Am I missing something?

As my visits to Buffalo not infrequently include a stop at Old Editions, and having toured several of the nearby development sites during Old Home Week, I'm familiar with the area of this proposed ramp - and think it would be a tremendous missed opportunity not to incorporate street-level retail. Old Editions is a uniquely Buffalo resource visited by many of us from out of town, but also by locals due to the great selection of local Buffalo books (even recent publications), the occasional lectures hosted there, and the cafe. If the new ramp were made, say, one level higher, the lower level might well be viable for, among other things, a coffee shop or sandwich shop. With the retail there, plus Old Editions, the corners would be anchors which during the day could draw workers out of their bunker-like buildings in the Elm/Oak corridor, as well as the many workplaces just to the west. In the evenings and on weekends, the corners could attract people living in the many residential conversions - existing and underway - nearby.

Incorporation of street-level retain into this ramp would help promote, eventually, continuous retail along Huron, and the west side of Oak Street. Without the street-level retail, and even with the otherwise fine design elements, I'm afraid that what could result would be something of a "dead zone" gap. As mentioned in discussions of Stip's recent article, development decisions are made - whether good or bad - one project at a time. In my view, it would be well worthwhile for those interested in the redevelopment of this area of downtown to push strongly for some rethinking of this otherwise nicely designed project.

Um yea, 5-8 stories = multi-floor

I'm confused. We bitch because there isn't parking, and we bitch when they want to create more parking by utilizing the least possible surface area. Ok it's all so much clearer now. Back to reality. Thanks.