Buffalo Rising Online

Dec 12th 2008, 2:23pm By RaChaCha

After the recent announcement of the formation of Preservation Buffalo Niagara, Buffalo Rising sat down with Jay DiLorenzo, President of the Preservation League of New York State.

BR: Tell us about your Buffalo connections.
JD: I spent six years in Buffalo, where I studied Political Science at UB. Afterward, I went to Albany to take a fundraising position with the United Way. While there, I studied preservation at RPI, and that eventually led to a fundraising position with the Preservation League. Later, I had the opportunity to become president.

BR: How do you balance Upstate vs. Downstate at the League?
JD: We get most of our funding from private sources, which in New York means a high proportion of downstate-based foundations and donors. Yet the foundation people who support us—and our board members from downstate—have a broader geographic perspective. They genuinely appreciate our heritage Upstate, for example the architecture in Buffalo, and the Erie Canal. Ten years ago our board members came here and are still talking about it—I’m looking to get them back here soon. Western New York has an impact statewide—one example is our “Making Upper Floors Work” workshop about the reuse of commercial storefront buildings. The Wendt Foundation funded the development of that, and offering it in the seven counties of Western New York. It was clearly of value, so we took it statewide.

BR: Where do things stand with the expanded preservation tax credits, given the Governor’s recent veto?
JD: We haven’t given up. We would like to see the Governor include the credits in the executive budget he’ll submit in December. He fully appreciates their value—the veto was more a reaction to the economic crisis. We see the expanded credits as a ready-made, in-the-can upstate redevelopment program for both residential and commercial properties that already has a proven track record in states such as Missouri and Rhode Island. While they won’t help everyone, they will help a lot more projects get done. People aren’t giving up on Upstate redevelopment, but right now they’re having trouble making the numbers work.

BR: The League recently used the new Endangered Properties Intervention Program, EPIP, to kick-start the stabilization and redevelopment of the Cooperage. That program seems almost tailor made for the continual preservation emergencies we face here. Tell us more about the program, and how projects get funded.
JD: Initially, we have a limited pool of funding, so we’ve been choosing projects carefully, looking for diversity by type and geography. Preservation today is about protecting more than just buildings, but also landscapes and districts, or even whole neighborhoods. That’s reflected in our choices of projects to date. Currently, the revolving loan fund is the only piece in what we plan to be a larger program, with a variety of tools allowing direct intervention to aid endangered properties. We are working to fund the other pieces. We look to our Preservation Colleagues, the local preservation organizations allied with the League, to bring additional projects to our attention.

BR: Speaking of endangered properties, we recently covered a demolition threat to a significant church in the Prospect Hill neighborhood, a neighborhood which the League recently put on its “Seven to Save” list. Should that designation provide an enhanced level of protection for buildings in the neighborhood?
JD: The League doesn’t have the capacity to intervene in every situation, which is one of the reasons we work through our local Preservation Colleague organizations on these issues. The League’s primary focus is on statewide tools and policies to benefit preservation, so there will be options available in these situations. The $7,500 grant we just announced for the historic resources survey of the neighborhood is an effort to be proactive. The work on the surveys and the like will yield data that can drive other preservation efforts there.

BR: What can be done to professionalize historic preservation in New York? For example, should there be an annual or semi-annual statewide conference?
JD: At one time there were statewide preservation conferences. One of the things we have been doing recently, in conjunction with the New York State Council of the Arts, is conducting training twice a year with the staff of our Preservation Colleagues that have professional staff. In fact, the most recent training was in Buffalo in the spring. We’ve also been working to incorporate preservation tracks into other training and conferences, for example those dealing with housing development and energy conservation.

BR: Regarding redevelopment and energy conservation, when the state provides funds for the renovation of a vacant house, due to DHCR guidelines, all of the original clapboards—even when still in decent shape—are replaced and sent to the landfill.
JD: We’re working with state agencies such as DHCR [Department of Housing and Community Renewal] and NYSERDA [New York State Energy Research and Development Authority] to improve guidelines in areas impacting preservation, to avoid situations like this. The area of energy efficiency, for example in regard to window repair or replacement, is another area fraught with situations like this where one state policy (energy efficiency) has to be balanced against another state policy (historic preservation).

BR: What do you see as the role of the academic historic preservation programs, for example those at Cornell, Columbia, and RPI?
JD: Students in these programs are often utilized as interns. Preservation organizations around the state have staff who come from these programs, as do many professionals in preservation-related jobs.

BR: What about a preservation degree program in Buffalo?
JD: Buffalo would be an ideal place for one. UB, for example, already has many of the ingredients—an exceptional architecture program, and programs in law, planning, and engineering—all areas which affect preservation. And students in those areas would benefit from having preservation courses as electives. For example, it makes engineers and architects better to have an understanding of older construction. Preservation doesn’t operate in a vacuum—it touches us where we live and work every day, and affects how our communities function.