'Exploring the Fringe'
This project explores the downtown fringe - that weird zone between the downtown skyline and the rest of the city. That zone where the bright lights fade into tarmac, vacancy, and missed opportunities. A hundred years ago, the American downtown fringe was already known as the 'zone in transition' by Chicago School sociologist Ernest Burgess. And transition it did since then! What is today's downtown fringe like, what are its challenges, and can we explore new opportunities toward a more sustainable and inclusive city?
Particularly, this project focuses on the fringe of downtown Buffalo, where we explore the potential of typical downtown fringe properties: parking ramps and lots, low-rise buildings that await a new future, vacant storefronts. But like so many American downtown fringes, the site also serves as a gateway and an area of tremendous historic interest. Also typically, our fringe is an area of twilight: a 2021 city RFP for several properties on the site was won by a large developer to become a dense mixed-use district, yet construction has not yet started. A field of parking lots awaits a brighter future. A gateway street is working hard to remain vibrant.
We re-imagined the future of this piece of Buffalo fringe in interdisciplinary teams comprising of three Master of Science program students in the School of Architecture and Planning: Architecture, Real Estate Development, and Urban and Regional Planning. We explored the question 'what is the most sustainable, inclusive, yet viable future for this district?' by creating competitive proposals for urban design improvements, pitched to local investors and stakeholders as part of the ULI Hines Competition simulation.
Phase 1: Site Mapping Analysis
Analysis Collaborator: Greg Dionne
Phase 2: SEQR Review and Strategy
Analysis Collaborator: Kera Franceschini
Phase 3: Competitive Proposals for Site Redevelopment
Collaborators:
Architecture - Sienna Allen, Jessica Renn
Real Estate Development - Quinten Koch, Brandon Cole, Prem Malhotra
Urban and Regional Planning - Sid Clarke
Architecture - Sienna Allen, Jessica Renn
Real Estate Development - Quinten Koch, Brandon Cole, Prem Malhotra
Urban and Regional Planning - Sid Clarke