It was a little over a month ago when I received an email from Fox News reporter Shira Levine. She wanted to know about the underbelly of Buffalo – the refugees, the bike scene, the farmers, the artists… all of the things that are putting Buffalo on the map as a reemerging progressive city and cultural destination. The piece that Shira was working on has now been published and Buffalo is included in a list of top revival cities to visit. Here’s the excerpt regarding Buffalo:
Buffalo, N.Y.: Digestible Architecture
Buffalo has long given America good architecture. Tucked within Victorian homes and mansions are the designs of starchitects Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, H.H. Richardson, and Frederick Law Olmstead. Millions are now dedicated toward restoring and reviving these structures and the city’s heritage. Wright’s Darwin Mart House scored a $50 million restoration. Historic Canal side waterfront district is undergoing a $295 million development project, and currently hosting over 400 summer events. The National Garden Festival, a 1,000-garden party (June 23-July 29) symbolizes Buffalo’s community building and urban rebirth.
STAY: The Hotel @ The Lafayette, a mixed-use project designed by America’s first female architect opened this summer, along with Mike A’s Steakhouse inside.
ART: Small galleries and artist-run spaces abound in Sugar City and Allentown, an artsy hipster-without-pretense neighborhood. July 26 to August 5 is the massive Infringement Festival. Currently on display at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is “Wish You Were Here: The Buffalo Avant-Garde in the 1970s.” Babeville, a converted church that houses the artist-run Hallwalls, was saved from demolishment by Buffalo’s Ani DiFranco. GooGoo Dolls’ Robby Taka started the annual Music is Art festival. The Western New York Book Arts Center offers letter pressing, screen-printing, paper making and bookbinding classes.
EAT: The surrounding fertile farmlands supply Buffalo’s successful farm-to-table movement. To date, there are 400 independently-owned restaurants from Polish to Mexican, Burmese to Iraqi. Farmers markets are aplenty; food trucks on the rise, and artisanal food producers like White Cow Dairy and Five Points Bakery leave chain restaurant struggling to survive. Filling Station in the Larkin District (a suddenly hotspot for business and entertainment) is garnering insta-buzz. The Blue Monk and Village Beer Merchant are growler go-tos for microbrews aficionados. [“These aren’t] the mundane openings of everyday restaurants, [they’re] significant milestones for the city,” says BuffaloRising‘s Newell Nussbaumer. “There’s no more yellow haze over the city from the steel plants. Our water is getting clean. The cost of living is low, and there’s no traffic.”
Photos: Visit Buffalo Niagara, KC Kratt, John Paget
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/07/30/post-industrial-cities/#ixzz228HfkzJD