Author: Gorton Fishman
The Uniland parking ramp for 250 Delaware has led to quite a bit of social media outrage from Buffalonians, ranging from urbanists who see the brutalist design of your typical parking ramp as an affront to a burgeoning city, to longtime West Village residents who similarly dislike a structure like that encroaching on their historic neighborhood.
It’s understandable. Chippewa is transforming from a few bars and nightclubs into a vibrant 24/7 district with new developments and a West Village that’s seemingly grown more beautiful in the recent years, it reminds me quite a bit of the renaissance the Adams Morgan neighborhood in DC experienced from about 2009 onward (thankfully without the 800k+ home prices). That said, as this BRO article states, sometimes patience is needed. This one from the proposed rendering should look quite nice when completed. As a matter of fact, I think more of its kind are needed.
Yes, I said it. Buffalo does need another parking ramp or two. It’s an idea unpopular with urban planners who believe we need fewer cars on the road and more people walking and taking transit. The fact of the matter is people have choice, and we should accommodate all choices fairly, without crowning the automobile or the streetcar as the “be all end all” mode of transit. Also, parking ramps have an added benefit for urbanists; when a developer can build a supertall parking garage, there’s more impetus to infill ugly surface lots that break up the streetscape and strangle development in other places. It also attracts suburbanites who bemoan downtown’s parking woes, encouraging them to drive down and have a convenient place to leave their car, walk, and hopefully spend money in the city.
That is not to say that brutalist style ramps should be the way to go, or even necessarily allowed at all. There’s no reason a parking ramp or a building with a large parking component has to look hideous. As the Uniland rendering suggests, it is possible to build a parking ramp with street facing retail + restaurants, and office space. I’ve seen it done in DC, Bethesda, and Atlanta. One could even do it with all four sides being retail, with discreet entrances to the garage. A possible example: North Bethesda Market, in Rockville, MD (pictured).
The Complex is home to a restaurant, a Whole Foods, and apartments, the entrance to the parking is barely visible (a tiny sign points to it past the restaurants floor space). That subtlety could be carried over even if the apartments were replaced with parking.
If there’s any wondering as to why we could all benefit from something like this, think about Washington and E Chippewa/Genesee Street and the massive, hideous surface lots behind the M&T Bank offices.
Imagine if the lot right by St. Michael’s Church was turned into something more than just a sea of asphalt, that enables M&T employees to keep their parking spaces (with space for potentially even more downtown employees), while still giving something back to the streetscape. It would also hopefully reduce some of the temperature effects that large surface lots have, solve parking woes (real or perceived), and hopefully provide an argument for infilling other lots with decent buildings. It’s a compromise that could bring the best of both worlds and appeal to urban pioneer and suburban homesteader alike. We all benefit from good design.
About the Author:
Rudra is a graduate of the University at Buffalo and a software developer at a local company. He relocated to Buffalo after working in DC for a year. He enjoys blogging about beer, politics, current events, and urban issues in a non-partisan way.