Buffalo Rising Online

Agreed! Bring back the horse and buggies too!

> I won't even get into the affordability/diversity issue, but needless to say it plays out here too.

Because only white people can afford $400,000 houses, right? Because the upper middle class should only be living in the suburbs, and the only kind of new housing that should be supported in the city is subsidized and senior housing, right?

Oh , wait ... I forgot the "There's plenty of vacant housing on the East Side, so they shouldn't be building any new housing at all" argument, because college-educated young professionals and affluent empty-nesters should be forced into living in Genesee-Moselle or the Fruit Belt if they want a taste of the city lifestyle.

Waiting for someone to mention the "A-word" in three ... two ... one ...

> Agreed! Bring back the horse and buggies too!

But not too many! The Holland Land Company's vision for the area was that the site was to be occupied by farms owned by white protestant men of good English, German or Scottish stock. This land should have never been built on! Instead, all the houses in the Elmwood Village area should be town down, so the vision of the Holland Land Company and Joseph Ellicott can finally be realized once again!

> Purely subjective...such assessments are merely your personal opinion, we all have those. And my opinion happens to heavily differ from yours.

I can think of another house nearby that doesn't "fit in"; it's brick, has a low gradient roof pitch, and "lacks any of the beautiful exterior details associated with adjacent wood-framed houses." It's the William R. Heath House on Bird, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

I also find it strange that the same person shouting "It doesn't fit in!" in opposition to the Brantford Townhomes os opposed to the teardown of 25/27 Rumsey Lane because ... well, it doesn't fit in!

"this house had a flat roof. How many houses in the area (including Tonawanda) have a flat roof? I can see that the average peson looking at the house wouldn't see it as anything special. And that's a shame. Modern, small houses like this one are being preserved all across the country."

http://www.buffalorising.com/story/rumsey_ripdown

I feel depressed. I used to have so much respect for preservationists; without them, so many many of the city's treasures would be lost to the ages. Now, though, it seems like most come in two camps:

* Those that believe Buffalo must look exactly as it did before 1917. * Those that believe Buffalo must look exactly as it did before 1945.

Those attitudes can be just as destructive as those of the desperate "beggars can't be choosers" crowd who welcome all development, no matter how poorly it fits in with the city's built environment and urban fabric.

It looks like Hamp has become a lightning rod for the anger over "status quo Buffalo." While I am not a huge fan of the design of these townhomes their success speaks for itself. But Dan, come on, you must realize that these aren't the FLW prairie homes of the future. The style is more suburban throw away than cutting edge urban. Uh-oh. I just revealed my bias toward modern architecture.

Hamp, that is the chicken or the egg argument. Is it possible that the Elmwood Village (or any of the suburban areas you mentioned) thrive because of their proximity to high income residents with disposable income? That in turn allows those areas to be more stringent on what gets built. Think about it.

Hamp, that is the chicken or the egg argument. Is it possible that the Elmwood Village (or any of the suburban areas you mentioned) thrive because of their proximity to high income residents with disposable income? That in turn allows those areas to be more stringent on what gets built. Think about it. I don't see Depew or Alden on your list of great aesthetically pleasing business districts.

What a joke... okay seriously if this isn't urban enough for you then what isss???? I could see raising a fuss about it if it was on the main strip but this!!! this residental street, sticks out gimme a break...

look at the color it blends into the back ground. Do you honestly think that its even still remotely possible for investors and architects to build buildings like they did in the 1800's today???

wake the f*ck up.. even if we found a millionare who was completley retarded, it just doen't make senese to build "architecturally significant" art deco, slate, marble.. blah blah buildings anymore ITS TOOO EXPENSIVE!!! The building materials aren't affordable.

Dan I agree... theres rich parts of town and then theres poor ones... I don't recall anyother city in the world where it was beneficial to have hobos living with lawyers in the same building. God this is ridicilous.

I hate to say it folks but this is common architecture all over the country... "stucco and glass"... both of which are not embraced in Buffalo... what for??

Elmwood thrives because it has character... but its alive because theres money there, not b/c of building regulations? Waht is that.. think about the disposable income of suburban o.p, williamsville, and east aurora.. additional projects like this one that would put more people with cash in the area would do wonders for the "stricltly regulated code enforced" aimability of elmwood avenue. (texpat)

and hamp... I'd definitely call a condo. building that was buiilt pre-sold with every unit for at least $300k medicore.. what planet are you from dood?? Vermont is calling your name.. take all your other elmwood avenue hippies with you

and Dan I get more and more depressed every day I sign onto this website..and realize that its the people who are holding this city back... we need to start a BRO recovery/support group. Meeting weekely in Charlotte... any takers?

In the end, this group turned out to be better than I had expected. Aside from the appalling surface area and in-your-face quality of the garage doors (at least they're painted a dark color) there is an urban-ness, if not urbanity to the corner. And one can sense some references to the rich architectural history of the neighborhood in such elements as the clipped gables and relatively-deep articulation of the facades.

Design and execution DO matter-- and greatly. Despite what some commentators of the "if it's built here it's good" school have said. The fact that Buffalo still gets exercised about design is to its credit as one of America's great cities.

Where I live now, everyone would have said, "Whatever!"

I've been following this development on the City's more prosperous west side since a fire destroyed the place on Friday May 13, 2005 and have been comparing how the City handles burn-outs here to how they (don't) handle them on the City's east side.

Five years ago a fire destroyed a single family home at 198 Glenwood just two blocks away from two city schools. fixBuffalo readers might remember this - Tale of Two Cities

By every metric Paul Johnson has done amazing work at this location. Credit goes to Joe Golombek, the councilman here in this part of the Elmwood Village, for his advocacy work in Housing Court to get 60 Brantford demolished in a timely way. Wish he could help us out with five year old burn out - now owned by the City for the last two years - that's close to two City schools. Suggestions anyone...

Now these are sharp - see what happens when you demolish old crap and build new - we need 1000 more of these throughout the city - then you will start seeing some progress- preservationists need to be more cooperative - project like these will bring people back to this city, especially those with money!

Gee, someone paid 400,000 dollars for these? There truly must be an unmet demand for new housing in the Elmwood Village. Some enterprising person should buy some houses with structural problems in the area, tear them down, and then build new houses. They'd make a tidy profit and improve the quality of housing here too. But you figure the preservationists and the fans of the 19th century would never allow such a thing. *sigh*

City's change people. These homes are stunning, inside and out. After 30 years of ZERO GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IT'S ABOUT TIME! Since moving here and living 3 years in Buffalo the only thing that has not changed [or so I have gathered] is the mentality of many of the city dwellers. I tend to find these are people who have not lived elsewhere or travel much, but then even Atlanta and Boston had their fair share of the little minds.

Hospitable - Spot on and brilliant! You nailed the issue at hand! I too get depressed every time I sign-on to BRO, it is the same reactionary BS cycled through thread after thread. I try not to read or post, I try to stay away, but like a fire or car crash, I have to watch.

ChristaSeychew - You are spot on as well! It would be great to have more 'new build' options and ammenities to compliment the character and charm of the existing neighborhoods. They can co-exist, and at the end of the day, this choice will bring people to the City.

Maybe they should have left the ash from the burned out building??? cough...cough...this building looks great, and there are great new people living there...

This is why people can never get anything done in this city, we have people who come to the city, spend money, invest $2M, and then still get complaints...knock down 4 grain mills, save/refurbish one...people aren't coming to Buffalo to visit grain mills...sorry Tim Tielman...and change the law to build the hotel on Elmwood and Forest, and build the Condo on Delaware. These are all great projects that will enhance our neighborhoods, the combination of new and old is what makes Chicago and NYC great places to live and visit, once people realize that we can accomplish the same thing here, they will come back. Enough said...

Credit goes to Joe Golombek, the councilman here in this part of the Elmwood Village, for his advocacy work in Housing Court to get 60 Brantford demolished in a timely way. Wish he could help us out with five year old burn out - now owned by the City for the last two years - that's close to two City schools. Suggestions anyone...

David, I suppose one obvious difference is that in Golombek's district even though there's a lot of troubled properties there's relatively few burn outs (or other houses desperately needing demo) so that makes it more feasible for him to focus on the handful that are that bad. Whereas in Fillmore and Masten districts there's many many more in that state. I'm not saying this justifies anything, just that it's a lot easier for Golombek to look like the difference maker when really there's the magnitude issue that's a huge difference. In other words, if you could magically swap Golombek in as council member in Masten (or whichever is the district for Glenwood), I doubt each and every house needing demo would get his attention as did apparently this one.

Another thing I wonder about is why the city government should have needed to push for the Brantford demolition, since this condo builder was ready to buy while the burned house was still standing? I'm pretty sure I remember For Sale signs while the burn out was still standing, so it seems the previous owner had it on the market prior to demo. Thus, I wonder whether the relatively fast demo wasn't aided along by the buyer perhaps more so than the politicians?

Regrading Glenwood, the city supposedly has a prioritized list at this point for demolitions. Will they at least tell you whether or not that house is listed at their highest priority? (And if it's at a lower priority, will they tell you why?) They really should have that info on-line for citizens to see, but they seem to really suck at that sort of thing.

I think they look great.

They took an empty (burnout lot) and put up an urban design with high quality 1st floor facade. The building fills the corner nicely while still giving a desirable covered parking to the owners.

Its not like they put up a vinyl duplex (or triplex) with single story gargaes out front and a parking lot at the corner.

I'm all about perserving the old houses/mansions that we could not afford to replicate today, but this makes for a great urban infill develoipment.