City Plan for Front Park Stirs Concerns
By Mark Kubiniec and Brad Wales
A January 1996 preliminary plan for the ìrestorationî of the National-Register listed Front Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1870s, was the subject of concern after its presentation to the Front Park Steering Committee on February 6. The plan introduces elements inconsistent with the Olmstedian design intent and the historic nature of the site.
The City of Buffalo's Department of Public Works (DPW) commissioned a Master Plan
for Front Park in February 1994. Wendel, an Amherst engineering firm, was awarded
the $50,000 job to prepare a plan for the ìrestoration.î Design fees for the work
were provided by the neighboring Peace Bridge Authority (PBA). The plan was prepared
by Wendel's partner-in-charge Mark Mistretta, and consultant DeLeuw Cather's Dean
Gowen.
The Steering Committee is composed of neighborhood residents, community-based organizations,
the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy (BOPC), and government officials and is overseeing
the Master Plan and its process.
The original design was created by Olmsted as part of the Buffalo's city-wide park
and parkway system, the first such system in the United States. The southwest-facing
design, gently sloping downward from Busti Avenue to a terrace above a bluff, provided
a beautiful place to watch the sun set over the head of Lake Erie.
The original 32 acre Park has been reduced to 20 acres. Current use and enjoymentñby
pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars alikeñis greatly hindered by an ensnarlment of
access roads between the Thruway, Peace Bridge Plaza, Buffalo Sewer Authority, and
Amtrak. An apartment/maintenance structure mars views and the Terrace design. Pathways,
a sledding hill, and formal gardens have been lost.
Despite the great opportunity presented for a full-blown restoration, the designers
have introduced significant changes which would effect how the landscape is perceived
and the park enjoyed. Among them are:
ï Two original corner entrances, at the north end of the bluff and the intersection of Busti and Porter change completely; a new vehicular entrance is aligned with Lakeview Avenue; the old top-of-bluff Drive is eliminated;
ï Olmsted's play ground, originally sited so its cross axis met that of the terrace at a music stand, which mediated the transition between the two elements, is proposed to be off-center;
ï The plan makes no attempt to reclaim lost acreage; it proposes about 23.9 acres (as opposed to the 32 acres of the original design).
ï The terrace, originally a fine gravel surface suitable for horse-and-carriage use, has been filled with a radial pattern of pavement and turf and features a 145' x 445' parking lot as the central feature, cutting the Park in two in unsympathetic fashion. The proposed 64,525 square foot parking lot is equated by the planners to Olmsted's horse-and-carriage terrace.
ïThis project represents a superb opportunity to accurately restore the most victimized park in the Buffalo Olmsted Park System.
Toward this end, the Lower West Side Resource & Development Corporation has
produced a series of drawings in response to the preliminary plan for the Front,
exploring the feasibility of a full restoration of the Front.
The original corner vehicular entrance is reinstated by creating a four-way intersection
with landscaped turning lanes. In this manner, the Park is extended into the intersection,
maximizing pedestrian amenities, safety, and the prominence of the park.
Olmsted's northern bluff entrance, currently blocked by the Peace Bridge Plaza, is
replaced by a top-of-bluff Greenway Trail, matching the circa 1885 Sheridan Drive
route.
The Busti/Porter entrance, vital to the original design because it initiates the
circulation pattern and visual procession through the park. A curving path winds
through naturalistically placed copses of trees. The effect is of a country road,
rather than a driveway with tightly ordered rows of trees, an intrusion the city
plan would introduce.
The play ground, terrace, and potential music stand regain their cross-axial relationship,
while the original northern park boundary is restored. This could bring the total
park land up to 29.2 acres and would require the PBA to create design alternatives
for this level of restoration. A compromise option would marry Olmsted's original
design with the same land limits shown in the city plan. It calls for the optional
give-back of approximately 1/2 acre from the PBA in the form of three ìlemon sliceî
land parcels that would provide green buffer zones between paved areas and the Park.
Parking along the entrance road allows the terrace to be restored as a one-material
surface. That surface should be grass or other vegetation. Moving the parking lot
off the terrace to the entrance road also increases safety for park users by eliminating
the desire to speed to get to the end of the entrance road to the parking lot. Rather,
drivers will proceed slowly so as not to miss an open space.
Removing the parking lot from the terrace better restores the viewshed toward the
water by removing the vehicles that would blight that view.
ìFinalî master plan drawings are scheduled to be released soon. Comments can be sent
to the Commissioner of Public Works, 502 City Hall, Buffalo NY 14202. More information
can be obtained from LWSR&DC at (716) 881-3252.