City of Buffalo City Map and Site Elevations

Hi Everyone,

Below is a link that will take you to a dropbox so that you can download the CAD files for the site map and elevations of the surrounding buildings. If you have any questions or trouble downloading the files, let me know and I'll get them to you another way. My e-mail address is meganbas@buffalo.edu.


Thanks!

Download Link:

http://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/LaLFaW8hOiPA4gr%2FqLFtCw

Agri-Urban Connection: Massing Model and Render Studies

2001 Genesee Street Plan

Hi,

Jeff asked me to share these links:

Below is a link to an article on the "2001 Genesee Street Plan," illustrating the proposal to raze the existing convention center and construct a new one on the M&T parking lot site, relocate the Hyatt atrium to the opposite side of the building, and reintroduce traffic to Genesee Street.

http://www.buffalorising.com/2010/11/revive-the-statler-and-niagara-square-they-are-one-and-the-same.html

Here's an article on the topic of reopening Genesee Street:

http://www.buffalorising.com/2009/08/the-real-picture-is-it-time.html

Here's an article on connecting the Statler to the convention center:

http://www.buffalorising.com/2010/11/saving-the-statler.html

Use of Space and Location Quotient

Creating a Dialogue Between New and Existing Construction

Buffalo Sketchup Model

Hi, all,

I made a Sketchup model of the surrounding blocks, dropped in a few buildings that were in the 3D warehouse, and added textures to the buildings adjacent to the site. Hopefully, this isn't too late to help out the folks considering viewlines and/or shadows. Note: I started this before the site plan was posted, the building footprints were all traced from google earth imagery, so it won't be exact.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40583034/buffsketchup.skb

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40583034/buffsketchup.skp

Several historic preservation planning students at Cornell have compiled their thoughts on the most significant qualities of design found in the immediate environment of the Washington Street parking lot site.

Massing

All buildings along Washington Street and Ellicott Street that face the site under consideration for redevelopment express solid massing distributed evenly across their lots, each of which is filled entirely by the footprint of its respective building. These volumes have in common a regular, cubic shape and lack of projections, and together they create an even streetwall facing the parking lot. Each of these collections of commercial blocks, however, is formed by several adjacent volumes that vary in height, serving as independent but component parts that offer a variety of scales.

Roof type

Roof types found in the commercial blocks surrounding the Washington St. parking lot appear consistently flat (as seen from the sidewalk) with the exception of one (belonging to a building located on Elliott St.) that is end-gabled. It remains unclear if these roofs have parapets, and to what degree they are pitched. They lack overhangs apart from shallow cornices. Although adjacent buildings’ roofs do not always meet at the same height, together they form strong horizontal axes that continue the width of the streetwalls.

Fenestration

Patterns of fenestration—the characteristics and arrangement of openings within facades—of the surrounding buildings are rather consistent. The street-level floors of all commercial blocks facing the parking lot, programmed for commercial use, include entrances (often slightly recessed) flanked by large picture windows; on these floors, surface-to-void ratios are at least 3:1 and quite transparent.

Upper stories largely contain vertically oriented, divided-light sash windows spaced evenly across the width of the façade. The resulting bays are distributed at intervals of approximately eight feet; most nearby façades that are fifty feet across contain four upper-story bays.

In a few cases, a hierarchy is found among the windows of the higher floors, so that the uppermost windows have rounded arches while the remainder are simply rectangular or are surrounded by less elaborate ornamentation than those below them.

Cladding materials

Cladding materials on nearby buildings consist largely of brick, although a variety of clay compositions and hues were used. Stone is found in ornament, such as cornices, stringcourses, and window surrounds. St. Michael’s is clad in a red, dressed stone.

Articulation

Among all commercial buildings surrounding the parking lot, as well as on St. Michael’s, is a prominent stringcourse or cornice between the first and second stories that separates commercial spaces from what occurs above. Cornices spanning roof edges are also evident on most buildings. The degree of further ornamentation and articulation varies among the buildings, with some (such as the Market Arcade) featuring another stringcourse between its second and third stories.

Number of stories

Commercial blocks located along Washington and Elliott streets facing the Washington Avenue parking lot site stand largely between two and four stories tall. Those that are two stories tall are horizontally oriented, with widths of between seventy-five and one hundred feet; more narrow buildings have those buildings that have three or four stories.

Setbacks

The surrounding buildings largely feature no setbacks and end immediately at the sidewalk. The one exception is St. Michael’s Church, whose south façade is set back no more than ten feet from the sidewalk to allow for a narrow side yard containing a few trees.

Landscaping

The immediate area is characterized by a lack of green space infrastructure. Immature trees have been planted at intervals of approximately fifteen feet along the sidewalks that run the perimeter of the parking lot, to function as a screen. On the opposite sides of the streets—east of Ellicott and west of Washington—similar trees are found, but only occasionally. None are components of the historical fabric of the area.

Signage

Signage (not historic) is largely contained to non-projecting banners positioned on the facades of buildings.

Views in and out of site

A current sight relationship exists across the Washington Street parking lot, between the Washington Street entrance to the Market Arcade Building and the commercial blocks including and adjacent to the flower market.

St. Michael’s Church and the Niagara Mohawk Electric Tower form prominent visual anchors to the north and south of the subject area, particularly visible from Washington Street.

Market Arcade Site Plan

This site plan shows the immediate context surrounding the Market Arcade site. If a more zoomed-out plan is needed, just let us know and we can somehow get you the CAD file or send you a .pdf with a larger area.

This was my initial exercise at developing an idea board for all issues that I considered critical to develop the site around Market Arcade. It also gives me a cross section of scales and experiences to think about in the forthcoming weeks as the design process moves further.

Site Analysis_Public Draws+Attractions

A concise mapping of public draws in downtown Buffalo - museums, recreational areas (sports arenas, convention centers, etc.), restaurants, areas known for their vibrant nightlife, and sacred spaces. The site is depicted in gray.

Site Analysis_Ebbs and Flows

The general fluctuation of people in downtown Buffalo, with significant events marked. "Rho" on the Y-axis shows the density of people, on a scale of 1 to 6, while "t" on the X-axis denotes the hours of the day, beginning with midnight.

Site Zoning Regulations

FYI: Below are the zoning regulations set forth by the city of Buffalo for our site which is located in the Downtown Opportunity District:

§ 511-71. DO Downtown Opportunity District.

The following regulations shall apply in the DO Downtown Opportunity District:

A. Permitted uses shall be as follows:

(1) Residential.

(2) Office.

(3) Retail, limited to a maximum of 2,000 square feet per lot for a five-year period after December 18, 1987, except retail of unlimited size shall be permitted in that area of downtown bounded by the rear lot lines of the properties located on Church, North Division, Pearl, Edward/Goodell and Washington Streets.

(4) Eating and drinking establishments.

(5) Hotel.

(6) Entertainment uses, such as motion-picture and live stage theaters.

(7) Uses as defined in § 511-7 of this chapter.

B. Building size and form regulations to be applied without exception shall be as follows:

(1) Height regulations. The minimum height from curb level for buildings shall be two stories or 24 feet, whichever is greater.

(2) Stepbacks. Building stepbacks shall first be allowed at the minimum building height of 24 feet and shall be required at the building height of 50 feet. This stepback shall be at least 10 feet on lots less than 110 feet deep. On lots greater than 110 feet deep, a stepback at least 15 feet deep is required.

(3) Front yards. No front yards are permitted. Buildings shall be built to the front lot lines for at least two stories or 24 feet of building height, whichever is greater. For the purposes of this subsection, a building will be deemed to comply with these regulations if a maximum of 25% of the area of the building wall is recessed to a maximum of three feet.

(4) Side yards. No side yards shall be permitted in the DO District.

C. Building size and form regulations from which exceptions may be granted subject to design review shall be as follows:

(1) Entrances. All building entrances in the DO District shall meet the following requirements and limitations:

(a) Entrances to offices must be at the streetwall or recessed not more than three feet therefrom. The width of office entrances can be no greater than 20 feet or 25% of the front lot line, whichever is less, except as permitted by design review pursuant to § 511-78 of this chapter.

(b) In cases where entrances to retail uses are recessed, such entrances shall not exceed 20 feet in width, except as permitted by design review pursuant to § 511-78 of this chapter. Recessed retail entrances may be recessed to an unlimited depth below the third-story streetwall frontage, but shall not provide access to another use or include a secondary entrance, except as permitted by design review pursuant to § 511-78 of this chapter.

(2) Front building wall transparency. Clear vision glass on Main Street frontages must be provided for at least 50% of the streetwall area beginning no higher than four feet above curb level and extending to at least 10 feet above curb level, except as permitted by design review. Individual windows or doors in this area must be at least three feet wide, except as permitted by design review.

Demographics: Past and Present Population (Age and Sex)

Blog Posting Instructions

Posting Instructions and Tips:

-After logging into the blog (market arcade.blogspot.com), to the right of your optional profile photo, click on the blue “New Post” button.

-On the New Post screen, you can input all of the information that you want to share with the blog.

*Make sure to give your post a title (ie. For a board, it may be helpful to title it with a name that describes the broad subject matter and the specific subject matter, such as “Precedent: Crystal Palace”).

*You have the option to add text, photos (by clicking the button with a photo on it from the toolbar in the upper right) and even videos. Your uploaded photos are limited to 8MB per image so you may need to take the image into Photoshop to adjust the resolution of the image to decrease its size. Also, the images must be in .jpg, .gif, .bmp, or .png format to upload correctly.

*It would be helpful to classify your post with a generic topic name (ie. Site analysis, precedents, etc.) in the “Labels for this Post” section at the bottom of the text editor. This will help to organize the posts in the future.

-Before selecting to publish the post, you can preview it by selecting the “Preview” link in the upper right corner of the text editor.

-Once you are done editing, click the orange button that says “Publish Post”.

-Once the post is made, you should be able to access it from the main page of the blog.

Cornell Visits Buffalo 9.18.2011

 

Demographics: Population and Zoning

Welcome

This is the blog for UB architecture and Cornell.