New Casino

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
81

This isnt a choice between jobs and an old grain elevator… A casino is going to be built in buffalo, its a matter of where.

Why knock down a building that is awaiting placement on the national register? There is TONS OF VACANT LAND in this city!!! Its not NYC people!

Buffalo is an architectual city, we have one of the best collections of significant architecture in the entire USA. Architects from all over the world have studied our grain elevators. Think about this, BUFFALO LIKELY HAS MORE SIGNIFICANT ARCHITECTURE THAN ANY OTHER CITY IN THE UNITED STATES!! I dont think we can say that about any other facet of this city!!

Stuff is just starting to happen in buffalo… look at washington st, look at oak st, look at ellicott st, look at elk terminal, look at cobblestone!!! This shit takes time, but developers all over the nation are starting to notice how much of a bargain this city is, and how much potential there is.

If someone said, lets knock down all these rotting shitty buildings on those streets, we wouldnt have the fabulous lofts and revitilization of these areas that we are seeing today. It may take a few years, but these places will get developed. The last thing we need is to raze all of the historic buildings in this city to create new non-significant structures when there is plenty of vacant land all over the place.

And on another note, this casino is not going to bring tourists to buffalo, when we have a mini las vegas 30mins north of us. Its going bring in local money, money from families that is going to be diverted away from other expenses, not new money. What we need in buffalo is new money, and this isn’t a solution.

Again, this isnt a choice between a grain elevator and jobs (a casino) this is a choice on where to build the casino, when they have shitloads of vacant land to use, and no plan for the property.

Buffalo is one of the only cities i have seen tear down large old urban buildings and put up a one story suburban mcdonalds right in the middle of downtown. We dont need to turn Downtown into an Orchard Park, or Cheektowaga.

82

I agree. Buffalo has a rich architectual history. I love visiting these places when we have Open Doors Buffalo. Central Terminal is an awesome thing to visit.

However, I don’t think grain elevators qualify in the same category. They are built for the ultimate in functionality. Central Terminal and the area Frank Llyod Wright buildings are something you can appreciate. Maybe when they start giving tours of the grain elevators I will have some appreciation of them but right now, they are a hot bed for rats and an eye sore.

83

For the people that said “Niagara Falls only got a couple million”…

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/local_story_328031954.html

Sure looks like they have a lot of plans for their share of the money. I’m sure Buffalo would love to see some checks like that coming in.

84

^

The two-year agreement stipulates that of the city’s share:

n $1 million must be used for streets and sidewalks.

n $12.2 million must be used for economic development, possibly in concert with USA Niagara.

n $1.2 million must be used by the Niagara Falls Urban Renewal Agency for economic development.

n $1 million must fund operations at Conference Center Niagara Falls.

n $300,000 must go to the city’s general fund to compensate the city for the casino’s impact.

n $250,000 must be used for a Community Enhancement Account for capital projects

n $2 million for a one-time payment for the Niagara Falls Housing Authority’s Hope VI project. If federal funds for the project is not secured, the money goes back to the city for economic development.

:tup:

85

good find :tup:

86

some interesting information:

“In 1931, Buffalo possessed thirty-eight elevators with a total capacity of more than 47,000,000 bushels of grain. And the world took notice, especially the leading lights of the international architectural profession who were forging a new design esthetic for the modern era. Many marveled at Buffalo’s extraordinary waterfront lined with mammoth concrete silos that foreshadowed an architecture of austere functionalism. Those like Walter Gropius, Bruno Taut, Le Corbusier, and Erich Mendelsohn drew lessons that helped change the course of modern architecture.”

“And the Buffalo waterfront came to possess the world’s most impressive array of these monuments of early modern engineering.”

“It was the unassuming prototype of the characteristic American concrete grain silos that avant-garde European architects would come to admire at Buffalo and at other grain centers in the United States. Indeed, one can say that Haglin’s Peavey’s Folly not only revolutionized the construction of grain elevators, but even influenced the course of modern architecture.”

"Together with their significance as monuments of early industrial engineering, Buffalo’s grain elevators came to play an indirect role in the evolution of modern architecture.

Beginning with the German architect Walter Gropius’s essay on modern architecture in the Jahrbuch des Deutschen Werkbundes of 1913, Buffalo’s grain elevators appeared in publications by advanced European architects. They praised them as examples of modern functional design uncluttered by ornament, picturesque composition, or historical references. Gropius illustrated his remarks with photographs of the Washburn-Crosby [Photo above] complex and the Dakota Elevator.

A few years later, Erich Mendelsohn, another influential German architect, published his photographic essay Amerika: Bilderbuch eines Architeckten. Among other powerful images of new industrial architecture, it featured views of several elevators Mendelsohn had seen on a recent trip to Buffalo.

And in 1927, the great French modernist, Le Corbusier, declared in Towards a New Architecture: “Thus we have the American grain elevator and factories, the magnificent FIRST FRUITS of the new age. THE AMERICAN ENGINEERS OVERWHELM WITH THEIR CALCULATIONS OUR EXPIRING ARCHITECTURE.” To back up his claim he featured a photograph of Buffalo’s exposed-steel-bin Dakota Elevator.

Writing for an English-speaking audience, Bruno Taut called attention to the Wait’s great Concrete Central Elevator [Photo above] in his widely circulated Modern Architecture. Perhaps Walter Curt Behrendt spoke for all of these men, when, in 1927 he wrote in his Der Sieg des Neuen Baustils:

To do justice, it is necessary to say, and this will probably surprise the reader, that it was the example of America that gave the impulse to the German architects when they first tried to clarify the problem of structure. To be sure, this impulse did not originate in the skyscraper . . . but the simple structures of industrial building such as grain elevators and big silos . . . These examples of modern engineering, designed for practical use only, and obviously without any decorative assistance from an architect, made a deep impression by their simple structure reduced to basic forms of geometry such as cubes and cylinders. They were conceived as patterns exemplifying once more the essence of the pure form of use, gaining its impressive effect from its bare structure."
87

^ sounds good

88

Niagara Falls sees tons of NEW MONEY, TOURIST MONEY… money that is not coming from the city of NF for the most part. BUFFALO IS MUCH, MUCH different.

Back on topic, this thread is about the grain elevators, not how the casino will help or hurt the city.

89

Well of course the Germans like them. They are plain, well engineered, and functional.

Go back to my original post. If these preservationists want to keep the grain elevators, GREAT!! Do something with them then!! As of right now, they have been sitting and deteriorating. If this is just a fight of principle then I say tear them down. If there is going to be something worth while done with the elevators, then keep them.

And in all honesty, I don’t even know that they should stay if Buffalo says the WILL do something with them. So many projects have gone unfulfilled in Buffalo.

90

Plain and simple: who pays land tax on that area?

No one before a casino, and no one after a casino…

91

I would like to see the downtown look nice like other cities with waterfronts such as Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, etc. All this preserve this old building crap is just keeping empty old buildings useless. Hell Niagara Falls is smaller than Buffalo, and it has a beautiful skyline.

92

I would take Cleveland out of that mix. I hear their waterfront is dying again. Don’t know to what extent but my father was there just recently and he said a lot of the businesses along the water are closed now.

A great example of developed waterfront is Baltimore. The Inner Harbor area is bumping.

93

Thats as bad as black people talking about slavery like it was still going on.
I didnt take anything from the indians or own slaves so get over it. History was made but its in the past.

94

Oh pleez! If you knew ur history u’d know why they get those special rights, and u would have never had to ask that question. Just cause you may not be affected doesn’t mean it isn’t important to them. btw…history repeats itself, so it is very relevant today.

95

Just because you do not believe that something old is beautiful, doesnt mean that it shouldnt be saved.

The problem with the preservationists in Buffalo is that they do not know how to pick thier battles. They try and save everything instead of saving the stuff that really matters. This makes a lot of people hate them and not listen to them, which is a big problem. In some cases, like this, they need to be listened to.

96

I appreciate historic buildings, but not grain elevators. There is nothing good looking about them

97

I couldnt agree more.

98

Germans = plain? LOL, you havent been in my over-engineered, overly complex Jetta. :stuck_out_tongue:

The “want to save them? do something with them RIGHT NOW!!!” mentality is just rediculous and ignorant.

Like I said before, if someone said these same statements about all of the run down buildings on streets such as Washington, Elk, Oak, and Ellicott five years ago, these (now) beautiful buildings would have all been tore down.

It takes time for things to happen… Buffalo is just starting to see the money and developers come in, and its only going to get better from here on in. The word is out across the country.

The Real Estate boom has ended, and developers and investors are now moving into areas with low costs and high value… Cities like BUFFALO.

I can name at least a dozen new projects going on or completed within the last year or two in downtown. We have seen more investment and development than we have in many, many years. Its just starting people.

Buildings you could have purchased for 30,000 4-5 years ago are now being sold for 300,000 or more, with nothing done to them. This should be enough proof that things are changing.

99

Now You’re making more sense dozr… with real estate about to crash, now’s the time to get in on those properties.

But, that is not horribly relevant to the thread :wink:

100

The ball is a swingin