Construction: MLK Park

MLK Park, next to the wonderful Buffalo Museum of science, is showing much improvement and activity with the large splashpad being restored.

The splashpad with be for swimming/activities in the summer time, a reflection pool in the spring and fall, and ice skating in the winter (future Sabres NHLer's, like Patrick Kaleta, maybe?) For this area of the city, the project couldn't have come soon enough, and hopefully this leads to more investments in the area, and more people going to see the great exhibits at the science museum and enjoying a day in the park.

Construction: Sunset Through the Donovan

Not the highest quality picture..... but with a camera phone while driving, what do you want! haha.
Progress on the Donovan Building ( One Canalside) from the 190. A Beautiful sunset in downtown Buffalo, and progress on one of the upcoming jewels of canalside, make for a nice night.

 

Bob Z-

Hat Tip: Buffalo Rising nails it again:

Buffalo rising has an excellent blog on the beautiful new University at Buffalo Medical Campus building thats going to be built downtown. This is exceptionally exciting, and $375 million dollars well invested by UB. This is one of the grandest projects to come downtwon in years (Which is saying something, with the recent Lafayette and Statler redo's being as beautiful as they are).

For more, please check out http://www.buffalorising.com/2012/05/ub-selects-hok-to-lead-design-of-new-medical-school.html for much more information.

What an exciting time to be a Buffalonian!!!
-Bob Z

Construction: Buffalo State College Technology Building

It looks like the new Technology Building on the Buffalo State Campus is slowly taking shape. They've been working on this for about a year and a half or so now, with about another year until completion. This, coupled with new dormatories, brings some excitement to the campus, with obvious signs of progress. This is also a big deal because Buffalo State is one of the only Colleges in the country to have an accredited Communications degree, and this building will provide even more hands on opportunities for the students in not just this, but all cirriculums.

Also condiering that education is one of the largest employers, and fields, in the WNY region, anything we can do to expand our footprint in this field (along with, of course , the medical cooridoor and the new regional tourism down at canalside). Buffalo State, along with the University at Buffalo, are practically mecca's now for downstate students looking for quality education at an affordable price (plus the opportunity to get away from thier parents for a few years!)

This is always my favorite phase of the construction on new buildings, you can see the exoskeleton taking shape, but you're still able to see inside and work being done all around. An exciting time indeed.

-Bob Z

Construction: And so it begins: The donovan building

Artist rendering


Looks like Benderson Developement is starting to strip off the outside facade of the Donovan building, the first step in the reconstruction of this old, highly visible (from the 190 and the skyway) building into the new law offices of the Phillips Lytle LLC law firm and a flagship Courtyard Marriot Hotel. Also scheduled are shops and restaurants on the bottom floor.

Its exceptionally exciting that this project is getting underway, being as it will be an anchor in the new inner harbor front area. With all the increased pedestrian traffic, plus hotal space and fun summetime activities, i expect this area to be jam packed pretty regularly. Not to mention its right by the arena, so any home games vs Canadian teams will probably be packed.

With good news like this, and the Lafayette Hotel opening in late may, you can't help but feel excited for downtown and the harbor. It truly feels like a new day in Buffalo, NY.

-Bob Z

*edit, looks like Buffalo Rising and Queen City spotted this on the same day (i noticed it on the way to work this morning), they have it posted as a blog too. Well done Buffalo Rising!

City Finance: A1, not just a steak sauce anymore

So good news for Buffalo finances (and in turn our own), Moody's credit rating agency has upgraded Buffalo's credit score to an A1 rating, for the first time in city history.

What this means for us is that the city, when it borrows money (mostly for capital improvemnet projects) it will now borrow at a lower loan rate, therefore owing less in the long run, which is better for the city because it can either 1) have more money on hand for improvements or 2) not raise taxes next time things get a little tighter.

Good news for a city thats rounding the bend!

Bob Z

Niagara Falls improvements

Being as how Buffalo and Niagara Falls are so close together, i like to comment on positives for one of the wonders of the world occasionally as well, and there's a nice one coming down the pipeline.

For anyone who's been up to the American side of the falls, the parks have slowly gotten an....old...feel to them, things seem a little warn down and used. The good news is that there will be an influx of 25 million dollars to help spruce the whole place back up again. Including sprucing up the main viewing area's around the park, redoing the Cave of the winds, what is generally considered one of the best places in all of the falls, plus paying for a redesign of the Amercian Falls Bridge, which is currently in pretty bad disrepair.

This, of course, isn't a silver bullet for the Niagara Falls area, but i think we have learned from the past 40 years or so that there is no such thing as a magic bullet, and steps like these are truly the way to build up the entire Western New York Area.

Photo Credit Derek Gee

-bob z

Gennessee Gateway Bldg

Looks like the newly remodeled Gennessee Gateway Building in the business district is up and going with tennents. This series of 9 interconnecting building was once a symbol of vibrancy in the dowtown area, and is once again so, with tennents ranging from financial investment groups to computer IT companies, this is an excellent example of adaptive reuse in the downtown area.

For more, check out this buffalo news article
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/downtown/article780766.ece

-bob z

Covering the Kensington?

Extremely interesting article on The Buffalo News about a propsal from a local group to cover over the kensington expressway and, essentially, make a park on top of it.

Its an exceptionally intersting, and expensive, idea that i think is worthy some preliminary exploration. It would certainly help the science museum and the neighboring housing.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article754336.ece

Donovan Building/Canalside bringing in a Marriot International

Exciting news (if your a Buffalo Revival nerd like me), Benderson development and the Canalside project have announced that a Marriot Hotel will be filling floors 1-4 in the soon to be remodled DOnovan Buidling, right outside the heart of the new canalside, and only a block away from First Niagara Center.

This is a bigger deal than just a regular old hotel opening downtown, mostly because of location. Its proximity to the arena, with dozens of concerts, NCAA Final Fours, Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bandits home games, and much more, is excellent, and with canalside slowly becoming a destination (with childrens experience museum, solar powered carousel, resteraunts, Erie Canal replica, winter skating, all in the works) this is exciting to being tourist mass downtown.

MOre from (you guessed it) the Buffalo News.
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/downtown/article731556.ece

Historical reuse

Buffalo has been doing an excellent job recently of rehabilitating old building into mixed use/apartment building. With more young professionals looking to move into the downtown cooridoor, this has made sense.

Which makes it exciting to see that an old hotel from the 1890's on Johnson Park, and registered as a National Histoic Building, will be turned into 42 market rate and above apartments within the next year or so, bringing more much needed mass to downtown. I'm also excited personally because this is in a block near my house which has needed to be renovated for a couple years.

More from The Buffalo News

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article731301.ece

As if the canalside wasn't fun enough

Historical Character Actors are coming to the Buffalo Canalside. Tonight and sunday will be former Governor of New York and a man instrumental in building the Erie Canal, DeWitt Clinton! Check out the article below for more!

Click here for more!

Buffalo: #2 City in the country to relocate to. CNBC.com

Yes, you heard it, CNBC placed Buffalo as the #2 city in america to relocate to. It's not just those of us who love the city who are getting the message loud and clear, it starting to take shape across major news outlets across the country.

Click here for the whole story.

A west Side Story

Great Article by Donn Esmonde of the Buffalo News about the growth of the west side of Buffalo. Having bought a house in a lower west side neighborhood myself about 2 years ago, it gratifying to see struggling neighborhoods turn around.

Believe you me, owning a 160 old house has its struggles, but it's worth every second of it.

Article Here.