Written on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 3:28pm by Mark | 6 Comments

X-treme opinions


The new HealthNow HQ’s in downtown Buffalo is a couple months away from opening up. In yesterday’s Buffalo News a brief article was written about the preservation and restoration of the old Gas Works facade. I found two opposite ends of the discussion to be amusing and distant from the truth…

“I think people will be poking fun at it for decades to come,” Cynthia Van Ness, of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County and the Buffalo Preservation Board

And then the opposite (and crazier one)…

The project’s architect, Steven R. Risting of Indianapolisbased CSO Schenkel Shultz, predicts the building will eventually take its place alongside Buffalo’s architectural gems. Risting noted that earlier buildings that were initially considered “too bold, too modern” are now considered local landmarks.

I guarantee that the juxtaposition of the 8-story glass facade with the old Gas Works one will be a local icon. The rest of it is just a large, generic suburban building you could see anywhere. It will never be too bold or too modern. Jesus. But it will be far from being something that the locals will make fun of…not as long as downtown is 50% surface parking and not as long as we have an inventory of ugly suburban style buildings all around our downtown already.

BONUS MATERIAL:
Live WebCam of the construction of the building.
The architectual firm behind the building (Ranked 9th in Prison design!)

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6 Comments

  1. Mike Miller says:
    June 20, 2007 at 4:30 am

    Nothing’s ever good enough for some of my fellow preservationists.

    Maybe they would have preferred a lonely old stonewall on a brownfield for decades more to come?

  2. STEEL says:
    June 20, 2007 at 2:44 pm

    Well the guy certainly seems to have delusions of grandeur.

    In my opinion the connection to the old building sucks because it is poorly done not because the new building is modern. There are so many better ways to have done this. The design as built looks like they just did it to appease people. Most architects these days have little understanding of urban design and working with existing context. This one is a good example of that.

  3. mark says:
    June 20, 2007 at 5:28 pm

    reason why they kept gas works: historic tax credits. on top of the LEED tax credit and brownfield tax credits they got. thats why they chose the site. sprawling suburb building for very cheap

  4. WIGS says:
    June 21, 2007 at 8:33 am

    Mark,
    I couldn’t agree more.

  5. thestip says:
    June 21, 2007 at 8:41 am

    Mark, you are completely correct in your analysis. They built here for all the free money, nothing else. They also are trying to isolate themselves as much as possible on the site too. I just love the massive earthen berm they have just built on the Thruway side of the property. They are literally trying to wall themselves in!

  6. Jeff Fisher says:
    July 8, 2007 at 9:07 am

    You didn’t mention how many jobs wil be located in that building. They will be a lot more healthy for the future of a vital and attractive downtown than are casino-type jobs.

 

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