Buffalo Rising Online

Even before I got to your last paragraph I was thinking to myself what the view must have been like approaching the main entrance from an intact Humbolt Pkwy.

yeah image what would happen to the streets and neighborhood around Bidwell of Chapin if all of a sudden those parkways were ripped out and turned into a Kensington type expressway. Talk about losing hope. It did nothing more than push people away and that meant to the suburbs back then. But more importantly your faith in the city to look after your home / neighborhood were crushed.

I think there are definitely ADA issues but maybe they can keep the current entrance as the ADA entrance and bring back the original. This isn't a unique problem to Buffalo. The Albright Knox switched entrances and now most people refer the front of the building as the back.. Same with Abbott Hall in South Campus.. another grand beautiful entrance to the library building right in front of you when you exist the subway station. In stead of seeing kids walking up and down the stairs and life you see a devoid set of steps and the life is now along the back side of the building. We really should get some sort of variances to bring all these beautiful entrances back to life because they are of such quality to influence children's memories/ Hopefully binding them and inspiring them to love their hometown.

Walking through the side entrance is about as un-memorialize as it gets. When i went to the museum for the first time as an adult I had to 'find' the entrance again even though I had been there a dozen times.

Contact the Wendt Foundation. Perhaps they would be interested in funding this project.

You just want to cry when you think of the humbuldt

http://www.buffalorising.com/story/em_tea_coffee_cup_cafe_and_hum

thanks for bringing up the link to those WTF were they ever thinking pictures. Makes one want to cry and punch the person next to them at the same time.

I can imagine how wonderful it would be to restore the beautiful parkways that were removed to make way for the 33 and 198.

We need to reintroduce the plan to downgrade the 198 and explore the option of removing the 198 at Olympic / Bailey or closer to the 198.

Imagine a trolley line between the Science Museum, Delaware Park, and the Albright-Knox. Imagine if students had convenient access to Buff State from the East Side?

Imagine the glorious park system restored to the grand splendor of what was once Buffalo. Reconnect the architectural masterpieces with parkways, roundabouts, and boulevards like the original planners intended.

the destruction of humboldt parkway has to be at the top of the biggest blunders by our city list. if that project was never done, the area around the science museum would most likely resemble the area around the albright-knox.

restoring the original entrance would be a great move for this building, and this area in general.

If you want to see an amazing view of the city skyline - go to the roof of the Museum of Science. It is incredible.

Regarding the future of the Museum... the place has so much potential if you get beyond the dust and dead birds. But reality is – it’s tough to compete with Discovery Channel and the Toronto Science Centre.

Also, the museum totally underutilizes its location on rt. 33. They need to light the building up with bright lights - spotlight their icon better – the observatory – and team up with the DOT or state to do more with the highway – cool tree’s and landscaping / change the line colors on the road / just be cool and funky.

I really wish the folks pushing for a weather museum would team up with the Museum of Science. The area cannot afford multiple museums pushing similar agendas and expect the MoS to compete with something new and fancy on the waterfront.

I do know the Museum had a master plan like 10 years ago – which incorporated reopening the front to visitors – it was quite impressive.

The museum has the potential to serve as an anchor in the east side community... but they don’t seem to have the resources to bring people together in the neighborhood.

So much potential and so little money in Buffalo.

Humboldt Parkway was stolen form the people of Buffalo. The parkway should be given back to its rightful owners. It was part of the main entry to this building.

you are absolutely right steel

Humboldt should be returned to the citizens and the waterfront should be returned to Black Rock/ Riverside by removing the thruway.

yes, by all means shut down all convenient access to the center of the city! People love to sit at stop lights and driving 30 mph to get to work. This is the key to rebuilding the city.

allfit- Convenience should not come at the expense of the RESIDENTS of the city. My neighborhood was cut off from the waterfront so suburbanites could cut 10 minutes off their commute. Highways jammed through neighborhoods caused much of the damage that continues today.

hasnt there been a plan for the last 10 years to deck over the Kensington with an addition?

My opinion stands that the Kensington Expressway should end at Best/Jefferson and traffic distributed on regular urban streets

My opinion stands that the Kensington should be decked over between Jefferson/Best all the way back to the its beginning below grade journey which is I think prior to the Scajaquada offshoot.

Heather- The suburbs have already used my tax dollars to pirate business from the city. You are probably too young to know but residents did fight against the construction of the highways, especially here in Black Rock.

Heather- The suburbs have already used my tax dollars to pirate business from the city. You are probably too young to know but residents did fight against the construction of the highways, especially here in Black Rock.

Traffic calming measures in Buffalo are easy

1) replace more of the side streets in historical districts with brick/cobblestone. You cant drive faster than 30 without ruining your auto. Instantly quality of life, asthetics, property values and street safety meteriorically rise

2) relocate expressway access ramps further away from the downtown core. No access to the Niagara Expressway closer to downtown than Virginia. No access to the Kensington Expressway closer to downtown than say Jefferson/Best. No access to I-190 closer to downtown than say Louisiana.

3) place a moratorium on downtown parking within 3 blocks of light rail gradually relocating our downtown parking garages to parknrides or the surrounding urban neighborhoods which would consequently benefit near urban shopping districts like say Niagara Street, Delware/Elmwood, Elm/Oak, Seneca/Exchange and Ohio/South Park.

Its not rocket science...its just not letting demolition happy parking garage developers run downtown development.

Buffaloweiner - That is exactly what I have been saying!

We need to close off the 33 at the 198 and restore the street grid. This will promote development on the streets that everyone ignores on their express ride to the office.

Close off the 190 at Hamburg Street (or further south) and restore the street grid there too.

Restore the street grid downtown by removing the Main Place Mall and the Convention Center.

Make Broadway, Jefferson, Main, Niagara, South Park, and Delaware the primary routes of travel to Downtown.

I like the idea about the cobblestone streets, these are like mini speed bumps. I frequent the good part of Niagara Falls Boulevard and cherish the ride on the cobblestones on my way to and from the University.

We need to make it difficult for suburbanites to travel to the city. There is nothing wrong with 40 - 60 minute commutes like they have in San Francisco, Vancouver, and Washington DC. I have to thank PaulBuffalo for doing a great job of articulating how beneficial these long commutes are for the cities. Vancouver, Washington DC, and San Francisco have all seen major growth in their urban centers due to smart traffic planning that doesn't cater to the commuters.

I would like to see traffic circles, or rotaries, or round-a-bouts built along Main Street per the original street plan. If I recall there was a major round-a-bout at Main and Delavan, another at Cold Spring, and another at Main and Pearl.

We need to stop catering to cars and give the people what they really need to live in the city. I can assure you that our children will breathe easier as a result of our smart planning.

None of my ideas would require a 40-60 minute commute.

Those cars on sidestreets should be going 25-30 miles per hour...brick and cobblestone streets would just make that a natural speed

Main Place Mall doesnt need to leave just yet...they could easily cut a pass thru for traffic to re-open the closed streets

Dont need to eliminate any of the expressways..they just need to be truncated further away from the city....relocating highway access ramps less than a mile is only going to add 5 minutes or less.

But the big thing are park n rides....the big parking developers are making a huge buck off of demolishing buildings...and its because of them that downtown CANNOT compete with free suburban parking.

Free parknrides via the NFTA light rail and busses would change the entire dynamic so that downtown and the near downtown could complete with free suburban parking.

The NFTA isnt extending the light rail because they would lose parking fees at the airport and the downtown parking garages would lose money to suburban parknrides.

We are turning down nearly a billion dollars in federal light rail mass transit funds so guys like palladino can live off empty lots.

How did people not riot outside city hall when the downtown 33 was proposed. it makes me sick thinking about what that neighborhood could look like down humboldt parkway and the fruit belt before it was cut in half by that f-ing thruway. blow-me white flight era

"yes, by all means shut down all convenient access to the center of the city! People love to sit at stop lights and driving 30 mph to get to work. This is the key to rebuilding the city. "

Why rebuild the city when you can just drive right through it? It's what we have been doing for the past 50 years and it was worked out beautifully ;)

poorly integrated highways and surface lots were all a knee jerk reaction to a scared central buisness district, outlying city neighborhoods be damed. Throw in the federal free money pot to demo and build highways and it was a drunken orgy of destruction from which we have not recovered.

People here want to claim that highways are what are keeping the city alive. Maybe that is true today in some way. But they are also a big reason why it is as empty as it is. Big leeve breaks allowing a flow out to subsidized suburbia with zero regional planning. You get the Buffalo (Erie County) that you see today. May Cheektowaga enjoy the benefits now making their way eastward......

I propose that RT 5 should become an elevated hiway out to the east. Split it off at 290 and follow main st out Pembroke. Williamsville and Clarence can decide if they want it up on I-beam columns on an earthen embankment or sunken like the 33. They must be wanting it driven though the center of there towns since it would be so beneficial. And the people building out in Pembroke deserve to get downtoiwn in 10 mins too

I find it interesting that an article highlighting the Buffalo Musuem of Science’s future plans to improve its facility has brought about a lengthy discussion on the expressways and WNY’s commute to-and-from the city... which was only referred to briefly at the end of the last paragraph of the article --- “Sigh”.

I would just like to make a couple remarks regarding the few comments made about the museum itself:

1 - For those who haven’t actually stepped foot inside the museum for a while, there have been some noticeable improvements made within the facility. In response to atypical’s comments yesterday, the “dead birds”, which I’m assuming refers to the Hall of Birds on the third floor, has been replaced with the (non-dusty) hands-on, interactive Connections gallery. It’s bright, it’s dynamic, and it’s a small glimpse into what the future holds for the rest of the museum’s exhibits.

2 - The museum DOES light up the observatory at night and has done so for the past five years - and, yes, the view from the roof is exquisite – just ask anyone who has sipped wine on the rooftop at the museum’s Star Lights, Drinks & Bites event.

So before we start rehashing the unfortunate removal of a beautiful parkway that once WAS, perhaps we should start drawing more attention to the improvements slowly being made in the beautiful iconic building that still IS.