Buffalo Rising Online

Mar 25th 2007, 11:02am By queenseyes

If you've spent any amount of time in Buffalo, then you have witnessed countless renderings of building projects. Though many renderings never see the light of day, it is exciting to see a development begin after witnessing an architects/artist's perception on paper. This past summer we saw sketches of the Elmwood Village Hotel (not happening), Bashar Issa's Buffalo City Tower (hopefully some day), and the Frank Lloyd Wright Boat House (broke ground last fall). There were many other renderings that made their way around the web, and there were even a bunch of hoax renderings sent to us that were pretty darn funny.

If you had to look at the bright side of having so many renderings floating around out there, it would have to be this: If you are looking at a building for a project, then chances are that someone has commissioned a drawing for the same building in the past. That was the case with the DL&W Terminal. As a matter of fact, I have heard there are a number of proposals that made it to the rendering stage, which can be very helpful. I did get a chance to see what the DL&W would have looked like as a casino... and then I saw the terminal as a public market (above). The market idea wasn't really even an idea, as much as it was a re-use concept to show that it was available building. You can see that there is was a large deck proposed that hung out over the Metro Rail entrance. This was also pre-metal roof, because the roof in the drawing shows curved arches and signs of added skylights. The massive front windows have been cleared in this depiction, and boat-friendly tie-offs line the boardwalk/bike path.

This rendering was commissioned about one decade ago. Since that time there have been many exciting improvement to the terminal that would allow a development to take place. Great efforts were made (to the tune of 1.5 million) to clear the rail tracks and debris from within, and access stairways were added along the river. It's handy to see these types of renderings, because many of the 'problems' that must be considered presently, have already been considered in the past. By speaking to architects and planners that have already spent time looking at past-proposals, some times those efforts can lead to making future efforts possible.