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Tucked away in their Grand Island offices, Cannon Design is in the process of developing a vision plan for Buffalo's urban core. Largely building on past plans, the design team will be analyzing our downtown and painting a picture of what could be.
We know what you're thinking -- another plan? This city has been planning for decades. Let's do something!
Well it seems this plan will do something to benefit our Queen City. It will create a system of information on buildings ripe for development, work to connect the districts through public space, and knit the city together to attract development drivers. The study was funded by both public and private entities, including the city, the Empire State Development Corporation, and international developer Bashar Issa.
"We are all working together to paint a picture of the future and help attract private funds," said Harry Warren, design principal at Cannon. "We're trying to get people to land here and live here."
The study will build on the celebrated Queen City Hub Plan, published in 2003 by the Office of Strategic Planning. Much of that plan has since developed into policy and guidelines for development in our downtown region.
"We want to take those guidelines to the future and ask, where will they lead? Our analysis may show some things of the original plan that should be enhanced or expanded upon," Warren explained. "We want to come to a conclusion, to draw a vision, stimulate discussion, and think of the physical entity that will develop at the end of it all."
"We're retreading," added David Johnson, associate vice president and project designer at Cannon. "We're standing on the shoulders, building on the ideas, of the past. The key is to build excitement. We all know what we need, it's just figuring out how to get there."
The idea is that Cannon's design concept will set the wheels in motion and attract private developers to our city. When developers are looking for a space, the initial assessments will have already be made and possible building sites identified. They're developing a basis of information off of which private developers, like Issa, can build.
Issa backed this project because he sincerely wants others to see in Buffalo what he sees, to realize the potential that drew him here in the first place. By attracting other developers with physical plans and possibilities, and encouraging investment, Buffalo will move closer toward realizing its full potential. And then we all win.
Video filmed and produced by Newell Nussbaumer