Buffalo Rising Online

While other cities had skyscrapers born from high land prices (New York and Chicago)... Buffalo certainly does not fit that description. Our modern skyscrapers have vast amounts of land surrounding them... such as the HSBC tower, One M&T Plaza, Key "Towers" and the like. One cannot discern where the plaza begins and where the public right of way ends at HSBC tower, for instance. One could say that Buffalo's modern skyscrapers came about from government subsidies and urban renewal practices, not high land prices. Now we are stuck with some modern buildings that are amidst concrete islands, lowering the density of downtown. This trend is continuing with the construction of the U.S. Courthouse, with the 50 foot setback from the right of way on Niagara Square.

STEEL, I know about the terrorism thing, and I know that the U.S. Courthouse is not a skyscraper by today's standards, I was merely suggesting that in THIS city, you can buy as much land as you want. I was sort of confused by the headline... "Modern Buffalo Lecture", which by all accounts, can be an entirely interesting topic. But the facts used in the article state that skyscrapers were born from high land values, which at the turn of the century, are completely true about this city. But the rational about high land values = skyscraper, just doesn't get me to the modern skyscrapers that grace this city. This lecture could be titled in many ways: "Buffalo and the birth of the skyscraper" OR "Buffalo's Modern Architecture" OR "Buffalo, the King of Mid-rise Building Hell"...

What does get me there is the fact that the Dun Building and the M&T Building share a common structural type, and there is where one can base a lecture on.

I like the two comparison photos of Buffalo's Rand Building and New York's world famous Empire State Building and yes despite their tremendous height difference, there is some similarity to their building tops. Those where very outstanding photos. Now if we would only change the way we do business here in WNY and cut our high taxes, probably more business would move in and we would probably see the design and construction of new skyscrapers in downtown Buffalo. Until this region changes its course, the downtown skyline will remain stagnant for the forseeable future. I would love to see another 30 or 40 story skyscraper rise in downtown Buffalo, but we need greatly increased demand on the marketplace in order to do a major, expensive skyscraper project. Right now demand for that type of space is virtually non-existant.

The major cause behind the decline of not only the modern skyscraper but of downtown business areas and business strips in older inner ring suburbs is the complete overdependence on the automobile. Lets face reality, most Americans insist on having a parking space right in front of their office so they can come and go without any inconvenience. God forbid that we should expect today's office workers and executives to walk one to three blocks from a downtown parking garage to their office and get some much needed exercise in the process. This rapid rise of these inefficient, isolated, campus-like office parks is just another contribution to Americans demand for parking right in front of my office so I do not have to walk any distance. We wonder why this country is experiencing serious health problems such as obesity and heart related problems. It is because of our addiction to the automobile. Everything has to be right where we can drive a car right up to and not have to walk any length. This is one of the major reasons why many commercial users have left downtown and moved out to the outermost suburbs where their is little or no restriction on automobile use and yes closer to where most of the executives and other workers live so as to cut their travel time to and from work. It is not only computerized automation that has killed downtown locations, it is the demand for convenience and easy auto access that are the larger more significant causes to the skyscrapers unpopularity with many commercial users. Also keep in mind the cost factor. It is much cheaper to operate out of a suburban office campus than it is to operate out of a downtown skyscraper and even an old inner ring suburban business strip.