The Bufflo Preservation Board did not heed the letter prtinted below.

9/21/05

Buffalo Preservation Board
City Hall
Buffalo, NY 14202

Re: Buffalo Gasworks/Blue Cross

Dear Members of the Preservation Board:

The Preservation Coalition is concerned about the proposed design for the new Blue Cross building to be built on the site of the old Gas Works.

You may recall that the Preservation Coalition was involved with the fight to save the Gas Works. We were very glad to hear when Blue Cross announce that they would be using the site of the gas works and incorporating the remaining facade. It appeared the project was off to a good start when Blue Cross call together members of the preservation community to get their input. Many good ideas were presented at that meeting, but the design as presented failed to incorporate those suggestions.

It appears that the architects heard me when I discussed the Secretary of Interior's Standard that a new building be a product of its own time and not an imitation of an old building, but failed to consider my remarks on making the new building compatible with the Gas Works facades. The new building appears to have little relationship to the old structure but appears to have been a stock plan from an office park plopped down in the city next to the gasworks.

Buffalo's preservation ordinance sets forth a number of criteria for review of a proposed improvement.  Among them are scale, relationship of building masses and architectural details including materials, colors and textures.  There seems to have been no attention to any of these.

Additionally, the building fails to make itself part of the urban fabric but creates an island for itself. We understand that the developers have the right to close off part of Court Street.  This would be another blow to our historic Joseph Ellicott street plan.

This has the potential for being a wonderful project for downtown Buffalo, but not as currently designed. We urge the Preservation Board to send this back to design committee for further improvements.

Sincerely,

A. Scott Field
Executive Director
Preservation Coalition of Erie County