When you’re trying to spruce up a district for spring, and you can’t figure out what to do with a few unsightly, boarded-up houses/buildings in the neighborhood, it’s time to get creative.
Years ago People United for Sustainable Houses painted colorful details on the eyesores that they would eventually come back and tackle in the future. It was almost as if they were marking their territory with colorful expressions – showing the neighborhood that they cared, and that the houses were on the mend. Artistically painted boards were painted offsite and then nailed to the windows in the spring, creating a flowery effect that showed that someone was paying attention (later came Heart Bombs on neglected historic properties).
Today this sort of movement continues. The women of Junior League of Buffalo have decided that it’s time to take a few key abandoned houses/structures and literally paint some life back into them. The plan is for the women to paint the boards to look like windows and them charge artist Vinny Alejandro (the artist who painted his way back to Buffalo – see here) with the task of painting flowers and other colorful details onto the painted boards that will then be adhered to the ‘windows’ of boarded up houses/buildings in Buffalo.
The initiative is called Future Blooms, signifying the need to draw attention to the boarded up structures, while showing their potential for future rehab. Two buildings that are scheduled to get this treatment are :
1. 55 Chicago Street, Buffalo NY 14204 (lead image – The Cooperage)
2. 119 Chicago Street, Buffalo NY 14204 (first a stable then a Courier Express print shop)
The date that the buildings will be addressed is:
Saturday, April 26, 2014, 9am – 3pm | Saturday, May 10, 2014, 9am – 3pm (Rain Date)
You can see interactive maps of the houses/buildings, as well as further details on the project by visiting the Future Blooms website.