Respecting the vernaculars
The RFP issued by the City of Buffalo got a few different proposals and the one that got picked was the one fronted by former council man James Pitts. Not a big conspiracy theorist but when you look at the project you have to believe there was some sense of patronage going on when this incredibly awful looking hotel was chosen instead of the 10-floor Hilton brand hotel proposed by another group-Ciminelli.
Although I usually get annoyed with the outrage and anal retentive tendencies by BRO readers who tend to lack perspective, this project has deserved all the insults it has recieved.
Buffalo set a precedent for design standards at Waterfront Village when they let any crap get built on the waterfront just to have some sort of development momentum along Lake Erie. Sadly, the vernaculars established in the 80′s continue to this day with Paladino’s newest tower and now apparently the new Wingate that looks like its straight out of Cheektowaga or Amherst.
Unlike the 1980′s, communication barriers between city hall insiders and citizens have been chipped away at by the internet (and only the internet) and because of that we see the renderings of the Ciminelli proposal, and know hundreds of others are outraged and get linked to councimen email addresses and phone numbers. Let’s be sure to use this to our advantage and stop the cycle of political patronage and architectural refuse on the waterfront.
i was going to bite my tongue about this, but i can no longer do it…this administration must be replaced. they do not share the vision or the hopes of our future with us. if ever there was a time ripe for change it is now!!! we deserve much better than this…it is not even an issue of whether it’s a suburban style or not…first, the cronyism…they have balls the size of elephants!!! secondly, we should be preparing our infrastructure for tourism expansion, giving real tourists with money better quality hotels at our primest locations, with both high quality amenities and aesthetics, better reasons to stay in buffalo overnight or two…this decision not only gives them an option rivaled by truck stops, it also puts an exclamation point on the fact that our leaders are chumps!
Nothing says sophistication like a Drivit clad motel.
STEEL I think you meant Dry-vit, (a stucco-like exterior surface, for the uninitiated) and you really nailed it!(pun intended)What exit on the 290 did this photo come from?
I can see the busloads of Shriners running their little cars up and down the hallways looking for the ice machine and the info booth for (what else?) Niagara Falls….Barfalo NY, where ideas go to die….comparing this project to the link above for the Ciminelli one is….sarcasm aside…so disheartening. You can do better, fight this one to the end! Where are the Signature Bridge activist types to organize the resistance???