"IMAGINE the Bills in Buffalo: Buffalo Bills Stadium @ Central Terminal Site" Idea
By Dennis Galucki, Founder, C-SAAHN
The Center for the Study of Art,
Architecture, History, & Nature (C-SAAHN) has sponsored over 150
Tuesday Noon-Hour Downtown Library 'IMAGINE' Lecture Series since 20009
designed to provide the leaders in our community the opportunity to
share their vision of the Buffalo Niagara Region's future through the
lens of their own organizations.
Recent community discussion has developed around the possibility of
creating a new football stadium for the Buffalo Bills - presently
located in Orchard Park. The estimated cost would be over $500 million.
The location of such a facility will have a significant impact on the
future of the community.
The purpose of adding this page to the
C-SAAHN Website is to help imagine the positive and negative effects of
particular site locations. Some, for instance, have suggested a Lake
Erie waterfront site near downtown Buffalo. This would have an
environmental impact as large sections of wetlands feeding Lake Erie
would have to be paved over just for parking.
This community discussion is most
important and will provide a lifelong learning opportunity, especially
in urban planning, regardless of whether a new stadium actually gets
built!
Great letter in today's
News. This site seems ideal for a new stadium. A good
example of such a wedding of a modern sports stadium with historic
buildings is Baltimore's Camden Yards baseball stadium. It is
considered one of the best stadiums in the country. Buffalo could
beat Baltimore, so to speak. - Francis R. Kowsky, Fellow of the Society
of Architectural Historians, Author of The Best Planned City in the World; Olmsted, Vaux and the Buffalo Park System.
The following links may be helpful in developing a possible new stadium site:
Top Ten Reasons for the Bills Stadium @ Central Terminal Site in Buffalo
Buffalo News May 10. 2014
Congressman Brian Higgins presentation, Annual Meeting, Western New York Land Conservancy, May 16, 2014
fix Buffalo
Buffalo Central Terminal
Stadium site guessing game has begun Buffalo News May 27, 2014
Dear Editor,
Colin Dabkowski's fine 5/10/14 BN
article about the "tour-de-neglect" bicycle tour of parts of the East
Side of Buffalo is well worth reflection. Years of disinvestment and
declining population have left plenty of open spaces and abandoned
homes in the area - especially around the beloved Central Terminal.
For years, good people have tried to restore the Central Terminal. Perhaps this is the moment.
Recently, Congressman Brian Higgins stated that the Buffalo Bills new stadium should be in Buffalo.
Talk about placing it near the
waterfront is foolish. Imagine paving over wetlands for stadium parking
lots, while we worry about the condition of the Great Lakes in general
and Lake Erie in particular.
The area around the Central
Terminal could potentially hold the footprint of a new stadium and
parking and is largely open space or abandoned property. Imagine the
train concourse and tower being part of the new stadium design. Think
First Niagara Center. Imagine trains bringing people to the stadium.
Broadway, electronically being one way in before the game and one way
out after the game - leading people to downtown. Expressways nearby.
Finally a substantial investment
would occur in the East side of Buffalo. Unemployed might get jobs with
the Bills and walk to work. People in homes that might have to be
removed could be offered new homes in the neighborhood rather than
money.
It would be nice if the new
owners of the Bills knew the community was excited and focused on one
creative site and plan for the new stadium.
The Buffalo Bills should be in Buffalo and the Central Terminal site should be considered for their new home.
Dennis Galucki
Buffalo
May 21, 2014