The Golden Horseshoe from space

From Richard Florida's blog comes this neat view of Toronto (on the top, with the city's Yonge Street spine clearly defined) and Buffalo (on the bottom).

Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / November 4, 2007 /
 

Buffalo, Buffalo, Buffalo

Recently two fascinating articles were published profiling the rise and decline and future of Buffalo. Both "Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?" from the New York Sun and "Buffalo bets on" in the Toronto Star provide excellent perspectives on Buffalo's depressing decline from a 580,000-strong city in the 1950s to today's city of fewer than 300,000 souls.

Buffalo is undeniably a city of good bones. But as the author of the Sun essay points out, that is part of the reason why Buffalo might never reclaim its glory days. The city is physically far too large for its population, and any growth one might dream of. It simply can't fill out its vastness. He writes, "The best scenario would be for Buffalo to become a much smaller but more vibrant community—shrinking to greatness, in effect. Far better that outcome than wasting yet more effort and resources on the foolish project of restoring the City of Light's past glory."

Posted by Sebastian / November 3, 2007 /
 

Luxury condos for...Buffalo?

Wow, I've never seen anything like this in Buffalo. For the record, Buffalo has never seen anything like this in Buffalo. I present you with the proposed Parklane condo building which developers hope to erect on the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Gates Circle. I like it a lot. If this 23-storey tower gets approved, which I think it won't, based on Buffalo's skewed preservationist-to-realist proportions, I'm not sure there will be much of an appetite for homes ranging from $400,000-$2,000,000 in the Queen City.

Buffalo has never seen anything like this before, and for good reason. Palatial homes (gorgeous ones) can be had for half the price of the Parklane's smallest units. The new tower will be steps from the famous gilded age mansions along Millionaires' Row, but the Millionaires long ago decamped for other parts. Who will fill these new apartments? The yuppies of Buffalo? They all up and moved to Charlotte and Atlanta.

Truth be told, I love Buffalo and I know a few yuppies who could easily afford one of these new places. But they never would. The real charm of Buffalo are those affordable, huge homes that big city folk salivate over. Friends who now pay 600 bucks for that big two-bedroom with a backyard won't be trading up for 1000 sq ft apartment with a (presumably) crazy condo fee. If bringing big city condos to Buffalo is seen as the answer to the city's economic and brain drain woes, we might have a bigger problem!

The opposition to this tower is immense, and the comment boards on the Buffalo Rising blog are out of control. Here are two thoughts:

"I'm sick and tired of nothing coming to Buffalo because every time some one comes up with a project there are people who don't like it and protest it. Well keep protesting everything and no one will come and everyone will leave and sooner or later the entire city will turn poor and Buffalo won't have anything."

"I'd rather see Buffalo thrive as a living, breathing city than an interpretive history museum. This sexy new highrise will help breathe some new life into an otherwise yawnirific area."

Posted by Sebastian / Real Estate / July 10, 2007 /

Things I Love: The Mansion on Delaware

While Buffalo no longer boasts its own edition of the Social Register, many holdovers of the city's high society heyday remain. One of those is one my favorite hotels on earth, the Mansion on Delaware, which was just recognized by a Zagat Survey as one of the world's best hotels! Yay!

Like Rochester, Buffalo has been in the vanguard of historic preservation, and the Mansion on Delaware is a prime example of that -- it stood empty for 30 years until being converted to a hotel in 2001.

The hotel is just one of the dozens of palatial homes that line the streets of downtown Buffalo.

Posted by Sebastian / Things I Love / March 7, 2007 /
 

Niagara Falls

Yesterday I joined two friends in visiting Niagara Falls, Ontario. The weather was atrocious, so we didn’t see much of the Falls as they were enveloped in a constant fog – on top of the usual misty mess that usually renders them hidden. We stuck to the super-developed Canadian side of the Falls -- "the Las Vegas of Canada" -- which stands in start contrast to the depressed and depressing American side.

The contrasts between Niagara Falls, N.Y. and Niagara Falls, Ont. continue to grow. As a real estate investor told the Buffalo News last fall, he's "looking to dump everything I own in Niagara Falls and concentrating on other markets. I don't see it getting any better."

Posted by Sebastian / Buffalo / December 18, 2006 /

Buffalo Bills

My friend Javi and I yesterday had the pleasure (and I mean pleasure) of sitting in the cold and whipping rain in Buffalo to watch the hometown Bills whomp the Miami Dolphins 21-0. Of course, the pleasure of this game, like the last one I attended recently, was having a few anti-gay slurs yelled our way upon entering the stadium. Ahh, Buffalo!

Below, right, please notice the look on my face as I got increasingly more soaked in the western New York chill. That look basically sums up the game.

Posted by Sebastian / Buffalo / Sports / December 18, 2006 /

Buffalo snow!

I had big plans to head to Buffalo today but a little something called two feet of snow is getting in my way. Here's a shot of Buffalo's West Side courtesy of my trapped friend Jay. Yesterday was the snowiest October day in 137 years.

Posted by Sebastian / October 13, 2006 /
 

Where did fall go?

It snowed today in Buffalo, one month earlier than usual. I was in disbelief when my poor friend Jay camera-phoned me a picture of his shiny new BMW buried in snow--just two weeks after we had cruised around in it, enjoying Buffalo on one of those warm, sunny days that are so incredible there. Meanwhile, 300 miles away in lower Manhattan, where it was 35 degrees warmer, I snapped this shot on a rooftop on Canal Street...then went for ice cream. In shorts.

Posted by Sebastian / NYC / October 12, 2006 /
 

Buffalo: Who Knew?

That's the headline the Buffalo Convention and Visitors Bureau has front and center on its web site. And it's certainly fitting. Everyone knows I'm an unabashed booster for Buffalo, and every visit I make back to the city I continue to be impressed by it; the architecture, the Olmsted parks and parkways, the history, and the surprising vitality of the place are all so alluring. But the best part about my love affair with Buffalo is that all my friends (those who've never been there) are in complete disbelief, so it remains a well-kept secret even though I can't shut up about the place. That said, I'm not moving to the Queen City anytime soon, but I certainly enjoy my time there.

I remember when I moved to Boston from western New York in 2003, I was shocked at how sedate the social scene in Boston was; my frame of reference was Buffalo, where every street is chock-a-block with bars, clubs and fabulous restaurants. This weekend I was able to check out a relatively new one, the Buffalo Chophouse, where my friend Jay and I grazed on one of the best cuts of beef I've ever had after sharing pre-dinner drinks with Andrew Peters. Afterward we hit no less than three bars before calling it a night -- I never could no that in Boston. (Well, two bars, maybe.)

One of my fav quotes about Buffalo, from the New York Times: "Buffalo has an even longer history of architectural distinction than Chicago; you could do worse than to take it as a textbook for a course in modern American buildings."

Related: buildings i like

Posted by Sebastian / September 27, 2006 /
 

Buffalo Bills

Just in case my recent Vancouver kayaking photos did not prove to the disbelievers that I am truly a jock, my friend Jay snapped this photo of me today at the Buffalo Bills home opener. Buffalo lost, but hey, when you're drinking Canadian beer for three hours it doesn't really matter. Our seats were super -- look how close the field is!

Posted by Sebastian / Sports / September 24, 2006 /
 

New Frank Lloyd Wright boathouse planned in Buffalo
 
Celebrities including Mary Tyler Moore, Blythe Danner, and Dana Delaney have jumped on the bandwagon of supporters trying to have an unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright boathouse constructed on the Buffalo waterfront. The building was designed in 1905 and was heralded by the architect as one of his eight most important structures, but it was never actually built. 



• Related: Frank Lloyd Wright Stays Busy in Buffalo. 45 years after his death, three buildings by Wright are in the works.

Posted by Sebastian / January 13, 2006 /
 

Toronto vs Buffalo 
 
There was a time when a evening of fun in Toronto the Good meant driving 90 minutes for a night on the town in Big Bad Buffalo. Mary Kunz Goldman, a Buffalo News columnist who I don't always enjoy, offers up her explanations for "Why Toronto isn't Buffalo, and vice versa."



• Our slums are slummier. "We're not used to boarded-up buildings or rusting, derelict industrial sites," a Toronto business consultant told the News. "Buffalo isn't as bad as it was, but there is still a greater acceptance of - I don't know how to say it - urban wreckage."

• Buffalonians "always seem 15 percent friendlier and more outgoing - OK, louder - than the dour urban Canadians we see."

Posted by Sebastian / Buffalo / Toronto / January 10, 2006 /
 

My fav building at risk 
 
One of my most beloved buildings in the Queen City, the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, is at risk of crumbling not because of a lack of money to restore it to its former glory, but because no one can quite decide how to spend the $100 million the state has set aside for the National Historic Landmark, which has essentially been abandoned for years. The twin-towered building with its distinctive patina was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson -- best known as the man who designed Trinity Church in Boston.



• More Buffalo architecture from my site buildings i like

Posted by Sebastian / January 9, 2006 /
 

O.J. buying in Buffalo

I can't even imagine the jokes flowing in Buffalo, known as the City of Good Neighbors, now that it has been revealed that accused murderer O.J. Simpson is scouting locations for a home in the area with his Buffalo-bred girlfriend. He has set his sights on a three-story $239,000 in Lockport, but "the agent showing the house said Friday she was told to deny Simpson has any interest in Niagara County real estate", according to the Buffalo News. Instead, the agent regurgitated to the press what she was instructed to say by O.J.'s handlers: "He is not buying a house here. He is not buying in the area. He wants me to go on record that it was not O.J." Likely story.

Posted by Sebastian / October 31, 2005 /

Falls brawl

In the battle for tourist dollars, Niagara Falls, N.Y., has always played second fiddle to Niagara Falls, Ont. The Washington Post compares the two in a recent piece, and in reviewing the travel piece in a column today, the best the Buffalo News can say about their side of the border is, "We don't sound too bad."

I am not a huge fan of either side of the Falls -- too many tacky tourist shops and drunk 19-year olds -- but as one Canadian tourist correctly points out, "Who has the better view? Unless you cross over, you Americans can't see your own falls, can you?"

Posted by Sebastian / October 25, 2005 /

A tale of two cities

The tale of Niagara Falls is one of widely divergent reactions to the inevitability of industrial decline. The moribund city of Niagara Falls, N.Y. stagnates while Niagara Falls, Ont., thrives as Canada's top tourist destination.

The Ontario side has been on a frenetic building boom since the early 1990s when the Canadian government aimed to transform the region into the Las Vegas of Canada. Meanwhile, across the river, a dying city where it's not even safe to live on continues to decay.

The Buffalo News has a good front-page piece to the fortunes of the falls: "Gov. George E. Pataki promised in 2001 that the state was going to do for Niagara Falls what it did for Times Square. Four years later, this hard-bitten city has hardly become a hot spot for tourist-oriented businesses, much less a neon-emblazoned retail mecca. Main Street is largely a dead zone. Most of the tourists heading into the Falls keep right on driving, to the Canadian side."

One local real estate investor said he's "looking to dump everything I own in Niagara Falls and concentrating on other markets. I don't see it getting any better." But the news from Niagara, USA, where now-shuttered chemical plants were once the city's lifeblood, is not all bad; a $200-million hotel and spa is going up near the Seneca Indians' busy casino complex. Still, that casino, once heralded as this town's saviour, has failed to spur the economic benefits outside of its doors and in the community that its boosters had proclaimed.

And now, in an unlikely reversal, Buffalo finds itself gazing 15 miles northward to Niagara Falls for inspiration as it makes plans for a casino in its city center. But the experience in Niagara should provide some much-needed perspective for New York's second-largest city: " Of all the mistakes that have been made in Buffalo, none would be as devastating to our downtown core as the proposed downtown casino," a recent editorial declared.

Posted by Sebastian / September 13, 2005 /

Buffalo tries to reinvents itself

The Globe has a fascinating article about Buffalo, one that serves as a good CliffsNotes guide to those unaware of the place's rich history.

New York's second-largest city is taking the unusual and delicate step of making a $28 million addition to the Darwin Martin House, a century-old complex of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the city, as part of its efforts to rebrand itself as a destination for affluent culture-seekers. While 100 years ago Buffalo was known as one of the most sophisticated and wealthy cities in the country (even boasting an edition of the Social Register), the last half-century was not good to the city as protracted economic decline brought the Queen City to unimaginable lows.

Harvard architecture department chairman Toshiko Mori is adding a visitors-center to the Martin House, one boosters say is "probably the most important new building in Buffalo over the last quarter-century ... She's a very talented architect, and we're trying to do now what Martin did with Wright 100 years ago -- invest in someone who's not yet a household name, but shows great signs of promise."

Of Buffalo, Mori told the Globe, "It's just a beautiful city to drive around ... It may not be doing well economically right now, but that shouldn't stop it from having big visions." Indeed the city's architectural treasures are often a surprise to those who know little about the place. Few people are aware that there are only two cities where works by all three of America's most celebrated early 20th Century architects — Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, and Wright — can be found in one place. Chicago is the other one.

Posted by Sebastian / September 7, 2005 /

Buffalo fights crime on subway with classical music

The strains of Bach and Beethoven are being pumped through Buffalo's subway system (yes, they have one) in an effort to reduce crime and loitering on the train, using a strategy that has proved effective in other cities. New York City uses operatic songs to shift homeless people away from subway stations, while Boston, Montreal, and Toronto all use classical music on select stops along their rapid transit lines to annoy the loiterers and sooth waits for legitimate passengers.

One teenager interviewed by the Buffalo News said the music is having its desired effect: "It's irritating. We want it to go away. It's old people music. It does make you want to get away from it," he said.

Posted by Sebastian / June 21, 2005 /



A Return to Buffalo, Two Years After Leaving

I love Buffalo. I really do. I became entangled in this fascinating and historic city in 1999 when I enrolled at a university nearby, and have been hooked ever since, for two reasons: the men and the architecture. Before you stop reading for and say I'm crazy for falling for a supposed post-industrial wasteland, hear me out (and check out the city's fine architecture, below).



One hundred years ago, Buffalo was one of the 10 largest cities in America (today, with a population of 1.1 million, it's the 43rd biggest). It long held its position as the largest inland port on the continent and was also one of the wealthiest cities in America. The opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the decline of the American steel industry changed Buffalo's fortunes forever.

Today the population may be half what it once was, but the infrastructure of a great American city remains. Frederick Law Olmsted laid out much of the city, and the harnessed power from the mighty Niagara River made this the first city in America to have electricity. A seemingly endless stretch of great mansions, two of which are pictured above, were erected on Delaware Avenue (more available on my architecture site), and Frank Lloyd Wright went to town designing many of this town's buildings.

My real connection to and fondness for Buffalo is largely a result of its gay community. Gay people often toss around the word 'community' and many object to its inappropriateness or its overuse, but in Buffalo the term genuinely seems to apply.

Buffalo was where I had my first boyfriend (well a pseudo-one). It was such a complex relationship and I thought I was so in love -- whatever that means to a university freshman -- that I thought I would live in Buffalo forever. (Don't I look so cute in the bug photo on the left?...pulled from my Buffalo 2000 archives ... I know it's hard to see!)

What made Buffalo so distinctive to me then was largely the camaraderie of the gay community. It was the friendliest place I had ever seen; it was drama-free, laid back, and most importantly, it was comfortable to an outsider. If there was ever a city where people remember your name and consistently welcome you back, Buffalo is it.

A few weeks ago I was pleased to return to the city for a quick visit. I did my usual circuit, and went to all the places I used to as a university student (Spot, Cathode Ray, and a relocated Club Marcella). The moment I walked into Cathode, an unremarkable bar that is always the starting point for a night on the Buffalo scene, I recognized so many people, and a couple of people even recognized me and came up to me and addressed me by name. I felt at home, as I always have in Buffalo. Memories are long in the Queen City, and for a kid coming back from Boston, where life sometimes seems a bit too stuffy or insincere, that simple remembrance made me quite happy.

• I don't often link to articles I wrote but hate, but this two year old piece I wrote for The Buffalo News is a glimpse into how I felt about the place before moving to Boston years ago.

Posted by Sebastian / June 1 , 2005 /



Rochester and Buffalo smoggier than New York City



Despite the widespread belief that New York is the smoggiest place in the Northeast, a new report from the American Lung Association says that upstate New York is worse off, largely because of its location downwind from Midwestern industrial centers. Despite the smog, both Rochester and Buffalo are two of my favorite places.

Posted by: Sebastian / April 28, 2005 /

PHOTOS | ARCHITECTURE | WRITING | CONTACTEZ-MOI | HOME | ABOUT ME

Copyright © 2002-2007 Sebastian White | By accessing this site you agree to the User Agreement.