4.5 Late Twentieth Century Development: Urban Renewal to Early 21st Century
By the late 1970s, societal tastes and technology, in addition
to the economy, began to change. Cities and communities continued
striving to be “modern.” New methods of construction, planning
principles, and architectural form were adopted during the late
twentieth century. The City of Buffalo had 573,000 inhabitants at the
beginning of the Great Depression Buffalo and was 13th largest city in
the country. Over the course of the next 75 years, the City lost
roughly 55 percent of its population. As noted, numerous factors
attributed to the loss in population. Large-scale development projects
constructed in the late-twentieth century projects in the Central
Business District includes the construction of the following:
4.5.1 Urban Renewal in Downtown Buffalo
One of the most extensive urban renewal projects undertaken in the
study area occurred in the 1960s when New York State Department of
Transportation (NYDOT) cleared an area two blocks wide by eleven blocks
long on the east side of Buffalo’s CBD. NYDOT implemented the renewal
project in anticipation of constructing a depressed highway along Oak and Elm streets
to connect the New York State Thruway (I-190) with the Kensington
Expressway (NY Route 33. By 1970, the project was revised to construct
a pair of surface arterial streets at a much less intensive scale
(Quinn, L. 1981). The project included much of the area bounded by
Goodell Street to the north, Seneca Street to the south, Oak Street to
the west, and Michigan Avenue to the east. Most of the cleared land
remained vacant and unused. In 1981, the City devised the Oak-Michigan
Industrial Corridor Renewal Plan to provide for the redevelopment of
properties within the boundaries of the eight-city block “corridor”
project area through the development of new high technology and
downtown service industries. The 1981 renewal plan included the
following: acquisition of thirty-five parcels of land, totaling
approximately 28 acres; acquisition of sixteen buildings, thirteen of
which were demolished; relocation of four households, one business and
one institution; landscaping; and construction of adequate off- street
parking facilities. As part of the renewal plan, in conformance with 36
CFR, Part 800 “Procedures for the Protection of Historic and Cultural
Properties,” the City conducted a historic preservation analysis of the
project.
