Who is going to pay for demolition?
What is the appeal of creating more land in Buffalo, do we not have enough of it?
Who will be paying the $$$ for foundation removal after the structure is removed?
Why?
Tear down all but a few and just incorporate them into multi-use facilities. There isn’t a whole lot you can do with the silos but they can certainly make decent landmarks with structures around them.
However, a big problem is the incredible amount of pollution in the area. Developing brownfields around the Buffalo river is a hard thing to do and there’s no real hope in sight for any business to get in there and actually make a return. 40 years from now those things will still be standing tall, wasting away…
Once there’s a reason for them to come down, they will. Be it progress or gravity+time…
State / Local brownfield programs, taxpayers, private partnerships (with tax incentives offered once cleanup is complete.)
Not creating more land, creating more waterfront land.
State / Local brownfield programs, taxpayers, private partnerships (with tax incentives offered once cleanup is complete.)
Because the alternative of doing nothing doesn’t generate any economic advantage or even recreational advantage for our area.
There are several cities out there that can be used as case studies. We’re not the only city in the US that has problems with a post-industrial waterfront and structures which impede development / occupy prime waterfront access. Cleveland, Seattle, Glen Cove (NY), Providence, etc. Look at what any of these cities has done / is doing then take tell me you’d rather do nothing.
But this subject has been beat to death in Buffalo. The obvious compromise is to keep only a few of these structures, but the recent push of preservationists to say that the historical and architectural value of the towers is based on the collective of ALL of them is a joke.
This would only be newsworthy to me if it fell on Tim Tillman. Then it would be celebration time.
there is a tens of millions of dollars buffalo river dredging project going on already, as well as a lot of private and public investment in the area. (waterfront parks / condos / casino that will be done at some point / cars on lower main street) not to mention all the interest in the inner and outer harbors.
it would be shortsighted to tear them down now.
im not saying they will for sure be useful in the future, but theres very few things that are unique to buffalo, do we really have to erase them all??
they’ve already been there for 100, give them 20 more years and see if the area becomes a destination and hopefully the population loss in the city has been reversed by then as well. (this one is the most important thing for rejuvinating our fringe areas)
if neither of these things happen then I would agree most of them should come down
a lot of people would have been in favor of demoing half the west side a few decades ago and now its been the hottest real estate market in wny for years… anything is possible
I don’t think anyone with any sense has proposed to tear down all of them. But the preservationists don’t want any of them removed.
This building really epitomizes Buffalo IMO.
Progress being restricted by a desire to hold onto a past that no longer exists, resulting in a 3rd alternative worse than either effort alone.
^I can’t think of any other example in Buffalo where that has happened and turned out so awful, but I see what you’re saying.
There are very clever ways that old buildings can be integrated into modern design while not only maintaining the historical value but enhancing it. Unfortunately, Buffalo is hindered by ignorant preservationists and greedy politicians that get in the way of just about any shot for progress. THAT is what needs to change. We can’t get out of our way for god’s sake. (see: Bass Pro)
I just mean it symbolizes progress struggling to get past preservationists in a very visual way.
What a horrid building. But hey you never know when a mongol horde is going to storm your cubicle. It’s like the capital one commercials come to life.
Foundation removal, be intrested to see what the current foundation can hold, might just be overkill for whatever takes it place, foundations are re-used often. Not sure what kind of foundation grain elevators have, but everything was over built in the old days…which doesn’t always mean better…
I always felt it sad that they took down the AUD, surprised no one ever found some way to use that building for performing arts or something etc, instead it was torn down to make room for something that never happened, and what was funny to me was the exterior stonework and roof seemed to be in better shape than that of the First Niagara Center which last time I was in town was a hodge podge of different shades of teal at each panel.
Its all just so painful.
I haven’t been this sad since Katie Couric left the nightly news…
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I think we should use taxpayer money to tear them down. Fuck it, that’s why we pay taxes right? to do things unnecessarily?
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Then we should put some highways through them.
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Buffalo.