Downtown Buffalo 06.19.09

The Aud is days from being completely gone.

The Avant is somewhat open. Damon and Morey are occupying it currenty and access the building from the white elevator tower portion of the structure. The Embassy Suites portion is two weeks from opening.

Windows are starting to replace plywood at the Federal Courthouse

Coffee Culture opens up at Fountain Plaza on Monday. Open ’til midnight M-F by the way…let’s see how long that lasts.

Brisbane Building’s old, old, old facade is for all to see-not sure how long that will last so if you’re into that kind of random, unknown architectural finding-be sure to see it. The Brisbane must have had a very grandiose vibe to it when it was first built, now it is a significant afterthought for the most part.

The AM&A’s warehouses are undergoing a gutting before they are converted into apartments and office space.

Rocco is doing a campaign to get support and financing for the department store in front of it. Combine the AM&A’s department store, AM&A’s warehouses, Seneca Paper Warehouse, Holling Press, 504 Washington, Hotel Lafayette and even the Slotkin Building and Club Diablo and you get potentially an extremely interesting neighborhood with a diverse mix of people in a fairly dense area making for downtown’s first true neighborhood (maybe Ellicott Commons/IS Lofts/Oak School can be considered one too. Regardless, Termini gets it, sometimes he seems to be the only developer that truly does.

Maybe it’s just because I just got back from Detroit, but downtown is finally getting ready to move up to “mediocre” status. Its a start.