Development
Genesee Gateway
By Barry A. Muskat

An illustration of Genesee's possible future, rendering courtesy of Flynn Battaglia Architects.

The vacant and deteriorating properties along Genesee (between Oak and Ellicott) have become icons of neglect and an embarrassing symbol of a city that appears to be in desperate trouble. Thousands of vehicles carry commuters and visitors who repeatedly see this one city block. The derelict image is so powerful as to negate any other positive impressions of downtown revitalization.

It’s really unfortunate, because from an historic standpoint, the site represents one of the most intact series of storefronts in the city. In architectural significance, I’d suggest it’s probably the mercantile equivalent of Delaware Avenue’s Midway townhouses (though not nearly as well-mannered or polite). What remains of the row is ten separate façades and tax parcels, along with a vacant lot in the center of the block and another at both the east end (facing Oak Street) and west end (facing Ellicott). The original buildings housed stores on the first floor and a variety of colorful residents in apartments above.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and Doug Swift of City View Properties explore the interior of the old Werner Photography Studio, photo by Elizabeth Licata.
After many years and many disappointments, the buildings have finally found the knights in shining armor who will give them a first-class rescue. City View Construction Management has put together a project that will restore and revitalize the entire block. To paraphrase the words of the developers, City View’s philosophy is “to find buildings that are pretty cool, seem like they would be fun to restore, and to get them done.” Some of their projects have been real challenges: the Root Building on Chippewa, the Nemmer Building on Main (now known as City Centre), and the Larkin at Exchange. Each of these projects has enjoyed tremendous success. But the interesting thing to me is that none of them have been painted with the same brush or whitewashed into a uniform standard. Each of the entities has come through major renovations with its unique personality—a spirit that keeps its own identity and moves to its own intact rhythms.

No project will have more personality than the Genesee Gateway. It encompasses an entire block of buildings—ten units with different profiles and silhouettes. We can add to this the fact that Genesee Street itself is not laid out on an ordinary orthogonal grid but expresses the geometry of Joseph Ellicott’s radial plan. City View plans to redevelop the entire block as one continuous entity (excluding one occupied building; its façade, however, will be incorporated into the whole). The restoration will create quality space for retail and commercial tenants.

The current exterior of the storefronts,
photo by kc kratt.
Flynn Battaglia Architects is the architect of record for the project. Peter Flynn (a principal of the firm) notes that the mid-nineteenth-century storefronts are significant artifacts and that the firm has had a longterm interest in the buildings, having done pro-bono work approximately twenty years ago. They’re particularly satisfied to be a part of the project and to add it to the viable urban fabric of the city. He notes that the development of the original buildings references a time period when a small businessman would build a structure that was a testimony to his success or mercantile ambitions.

Flynn likens each façade to a billboard. “They were developed, some more ordinary, some with greater flourishes,” he says. He also explains that very often, the space that was within was far less assuming and less significant than the facade. For example, the building on the west end of the property whose façade sadly collapsed in a windstorm (circa 2003) had a significant three-bay front with a waterfall window, but the actual interior floor area was very limited. It demonstrates how merchants tried to attract people to their business or wares based on a well-designed exterior.

The interior of the Werner Photographic Building, part of the Genesee Gateway,
photo by Elizabeth Licata.
The Genesee Gateway will enjoy innovative financing provided by the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation. The charitable foundation is actually a significant player in making the project a reality. The vehicle of a PRI (Program-Related Investment) allows them to make a loan to worthy community projects, extending favorable terms with interest rates below market rate. “The reality is that this type of restoration/construction costs more dollars than Buffalo rents could carry,” explains Doug Swift, a City View partner, “so it needed an enlightened and supportive lender.” (Swift is no newcomer to historic preservation. He is also president of the Roycroft Campus Corporation, a longterm board member of the Martin House Restoration Corporation, and is on the board of the newly formed Preservation Buffalo/Niagara.) The Wendt Foundation sees this project as so critical to Buffalo’s future that they are committing seven million dollars of a twelve-million-dollar budget.

This is definitely not the biggest construction project in town, but it may be the most visible. It may not be the most important physically in size or fiscally in dollars, but it is the most important symbolically and psychologically. That’s why this will be the first of a series of articles that will follow the progress of the Genesee Gateway project through its construction over the next eighteen months on to its completion. We’ll look at it periodically to document its progress and how it affects its part of the downtown neighborhood.

Barry A. Muskat is Buffalo Spree’s architecture critic. He’s excited to document the Genesee Gateway, which he’s identified as “a Buffalo project that makes a real difference.”


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