Posted October 14, 201311 yr Hey everyone, I visited Buffalo to attend a Pearl Jam concert (which was amazing). I also decided to take some pictures of downtown's construction and night scenes. I was half drunk at the time, and this was at about 2 am in the morning. ;) If you notice one thing, Main Street in downtown Buffalo right now is literally dead on most nights, but the city is working to put cars back on Main Street and share it with the Metro Rail trains (which go underground north of downtown) and above ground in downtown, which many believe was the reason behind downtown Buffalo's decline since 1982. You will see the construction going on Main Street in the Theater district (600 block of Main Street) and the city is about to start construction on the 500 block of Main Street. The goal is to eventually get vehicular traffic on all of Main Street for its entire length. So far, this development has generated and sparked interest for businesses to move into existing buildings and to even renovate some of them. You'll have to forgive the quality and graininess, I took these using my BlackBerry camera... Main Street downtown… One HSBC Center building, tallest building in Buffalo at 40 stories... Looking north on Main Street... Liberty Building in the distance... Revamped Donovan Building, soon to be a Courtyard by Marriott hotel and Office building HarborCenter construction (a mixed use complex across from First Niagara Center, was a parking lot to include retail, restaurants, a Marriott hotel, and two ice rinks): Inside the First Niagara Center, waiting for the concert to start. First Niagara Center is home to the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League. Pearl Jam performing... After the concert was over… got another shot at the cranes and construction of HarborCenter near the First Niagara Center Donovan Building, which you can barely see… One HSBC Center Pearl Street Grill and Brewery, one of the few active nightlife spots near Main Street (the other being Chippewa Street's bar district) Ellicott Square's Grand Entrance Front of Ellicott Square and One HSBC Center Coca-Cola Field, home of the Buffalo Bisons baseball team... Historic Old Buffalo Post Office My poor attempt at the Guaranty Building Main Street Main Street Place on the left and the M&T Plaza on the right... M&T Plaza Entrance Looking up at M&T Plaza Tishman Building (soon to be a new Hilton Garden Inn) and the Rand Building, third tallest building in Buffalo, built in 1929. Looking up at the Liberty building Looking west on Court Street towards City Hall... Hotel Lafayette, which not long ago, reopened as a boutique hotel and has so far been very successful... These next pictures definitely show the death toll the Metro Rail took on Main Street, but hopefully when cars come back to Main Street, this stretch will be revived back to its heyday back in the 1960s and 1970s Two of Buffalo's architectural beauties, the Buffalo Savings Bank and the Electric Tower 500 block of Main Street, including Fountain Plaza, the tall building with glowing green triangle is the Key Tower The 700 block of Main Street re-opened to traffic a few years ago 600 Block of Main Street (Theater District), which is undergoing a massive big dig to convert it into a roadway/track for Metro Rail trains and cars to share and provide streetside parking... Shea's Buffalo Performing Arts Center, the largest theatre in the district Looking north... One can hope that this stretch, when reconstructed to accommodate vehicular traffic, this stretch of Main will thrive again!
October 14, 201311 yr Very cool! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
October 14, 201311 yr I hope that returning cars to Main St will help Buffalo--but unless they start attracting jobs there it will be a long battle. HSBC is moving out of the tallest building in Buffalo (which the rail runs under). By 2014 the HSBC Center will be without a name and 95% empty. Sad.
October 16, 201311 yr Thanks for posting. I really don't think Metro Rail was responsible for the decline of Main St. retail, even though many people place the blame on it. Metro stations are well positioned throughout downtown, and the subway line north of downtown connects to many important destinations, despite the beloved myth that it is a train to nowhere. It's true, as Cleburger states, that attracting jobs to Buffalo is an important task, but its economy has many prosperous segments, and the coming to life of many city neighborhoods in recent years has been remarkable. HSBC Center's evacuating tenants--primarily HSBC itself and the Philips Lytle law firm--are not leaving downtown. I worry that cars sharing the same traffic lanes as trains in downtown will cause slowdowns for riders, but we'll have to wait and see.
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