How about a skyline?

[jbinbny]

Buffalo's "skyline" is in a word........WEAK!

Now before I'm blindsided by the preservationist division of Speakup WNY, this is just an observation.

I was driving over the" bridge on the river Kwai" that connects Buffalo and Ft. Erie. As I was waiting to get across I looked at our fair city from this vantage point and the thought occurred to me that this view of downtown Buffalo looks the same to me as it did 10 years ago.........15 years ago......20 years ago etc, etc.

Matter of fact it looks the same as it did in 1975. The tallest building in Buffalo is still that 39 story monstrosity called the HSBC tower. I'm convinced the architect who designed this building secretly hated the city. The fact that this is still the tallest building in Buffalo is akin to having a boil on the end of your nose...............Phew!

And of course there is City hall...our art deco treasure. If you ask me this building is nothing great. But maybe I would change my mind if they bothered to clean the years of grit and grime of the facade. Right now it just looks dismal.

What do we have against a couple of new 45 story glass towers anchoring our skyline anyway???? If nothing else we could at least give the impression that the city is somewhat progressive.

Now I'm aware that downtown office space is pretty easy to find. But I will say that perhaps some business's would consider moving downtown and leasing space in a new skyscraper if they were built.

At any rate our present skyline is just awful............in serious need of a major upgrade.

[therising]

I disagree with most everything you said, but I will limit myself to the following:

Originally posted by jbinbny
What do we have against a couple of new 45 story glass towers anchoring our skyline anyway????

Simple answer - people to fill them.

I see nothing wrong w/ the HSBC Tower. As for City Hall, it IS a beautiful building.

Now I'm aware that downtown office space is pretty easy to find. .....Far from true. Yes, lower end space is ammply available, but large, vacant, blocks of Class A space are non-existant.

But I will say that perhaps some business's would consider moving downtown and leasing space in a new skyscraper if they were built You are correct in this one. Five years from now, I predict, you will start to see businesses moving from Amherst to Downtown.

[NoCtUrNaL]

I think what the downtown skyline needs is something akin to Toronto's CN Tower or Seattle's Space Needle.

Something tall enough for Buffaloians to see beyond the ghettos and empty buildings here so they can get a good idea of the direction in which to point their U-Haul-It's when they decide to scurry off toward opportunity.

[NoCtUrNaL]

Although they're in as much if not more financial straits as Buffalo, I think
Pittsburgh has a pretty cool skyline for a relatively comparable city....


click on picture to morph to night scene

[WestCoastPerspective]

The big difference in Pittsburgh is the number of HQs they have- I don't know the number but they had at least a half dozen Fortune 500 firms at one time, each likely anchoring a downtown skyscraper. Locally we have ?zero? (is M&T on this list yet?). No one is going to build something so big on spec. Our only hope is M&T deciding they want a new signature building or HSBC building new when their lease expires in their tower.

Height is good, density is better. But you're right- there hasn't been much added in twenty years- the only ones that make a small dent is Key Center and City Centre condos- each about 15 stories.

[crlachepinochet]

I don't know if we need a space needle, but I know people like going up high to look at stuff. I don't even know if we have some kind of public observation deck now, but something moderately high would give a view of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and maybe Toronto. We should eventually have some kind of well-known public observation deck... kinda like how everyone knows you can go to the Empire State Building to see NYC from up high. Say, how tall are those grain elevators?

[WestCoastPerspective]

there's always the observation deck at city hall.....here's a link to some photos (warning- lots of pics):

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=188081

[NoCtUrNaL]

Originally posted by WestCoastPerspective
there's always the observation deck at city hall.....here's a link to some photos (warning- lots of pics):

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=188081

Not bad. Are you "Buff City" cause I got some idea's for ya if so.

[WestCoastPerspective]

No, Buff does post alot of pictures on those forums though- and most of them are incredible shots. I'm EastCoast on that forum.

[NoCtUrNaL]

Originally posted by WestCoastPerspective
No, Buff does post alot of pictures on those forums though- and most of them are incredible shots. I'm EastCoast on that forum.

Great...another MB to peruse and pester...thank God I've got no life...another then paying taxes.

[300miles]

Originally posted by jbinbny
What do we have against a couple of new 45 story glass towers anchoring our skyline anyway???? If nothing else we could at least give the impression that the city is somewhat progressive.
...
At any rate our present skyline is just awful............in serious need of a major upgrade.

I love skylines and I agree Buffalo's skyline is weak.
But these buildings just don't go up because everybody wants a pretty skyline. they go up for 2 reasons (and sometimes a combination of both)

1. downtown space is limited and expensive, so the most economical way to build downtown is to go as high as possible. Think Manhattan.

2. corporate prestige and the ability to showoff a cool signature building and permanently mark the city skyline. Think of the crazy Asian skyscrapers that seem to be built for no other reason than to be the world's tallest.

the first one... we just don't have at all. There is plenty of space all over downtown to build. Why build 50 stories up when you can more cheaply build five 10-story buildings. And land is relatively cheap in Buffalo. So there is no real economic reason to build high. And once the waterfront is available, that's tons more space that can absorb low/medium-rise construction.

the second one is our only chance... but we don't have big corporations willing to pay for a corporate tower here. The banks already have buildings they're happy with.. Adelphia would have been a perfect example.... oh well.

I think Pittsburgh has the added benefit of geography. The rivers and hills surrounding the city make it more compact forcing business to stay downtown. They also just have more corporations there. I love the Pittsburgh skyline. I think Cleveland's modern towers fall under the "corporate prestige" category. they only have 3... but they do look cool and give them a modern skyline.

[WestCoastPerspective]

NoC- there's also skyscraperpage.com. There is a good downtown Buffalo thread in there too.

I'd sure love to see a few more tall buildings downtown. Anyone have any guess on how big HealthNow is going to be? I bet it doesn't get any higher than 10 stories even if it has 350,000 sq.ft. as they said. That could be 18 stories if they had 20,000 sq.ft. floors. For comparison, Key Center has 15,000 sq.ft. floors.

[jbinbny]

Originally posted by therising
I disagree with most everything you said, but I will limit myself to the following:



Simple answer - people to fill them.

I see nothing wrong w/ the HSBC Tower. As for City Hall, it IS a beautiful building.

Now I'm aware that downtown office space is pretty easy to find. .....Far from true. Yes, lower end space is ammply available, but large, vacant, blocks of Class A space are non-existant.

But I will say that perhaps some business's would consider moving downtown and leasing space in a new skyscraper if they were built You are correct in this one. Five years from now, I predict, you will start to see businesses moving from Amherst to Downtown.

Well that is your priveledge to disagree. I can only conclude you like our skyline.

[therising]

Originally posted by jbinbny
Well that is your priveledge to disagree. I can only conclude you like our skyline.

I agree that Pittsburgh's is better. And, I do think I'm jaded. I've always thought of Buffalo as a two-bit city (it's a great town, but a so-so city).

I think my reaction was more of "it's good enough for Buffalo", maybe I'm shooting too low.

Still, I see nothing wrong with HSBC....and WCP hit the nail on the head when he said we don't have enough corporate HQ's to sustain such buildings. No one is going to build a 45-story building on spec.

[therising]

BTW, great link WCP. Everyone should check it out - there are people from around the world admiring our fair city.
Make sue you scroll down to the poster named HKskyine - he took his pics on a much clearer day.