A Roof With A View On Niagara
It must have been about a week ago when I paid a visit to UB professor/architect Brad Wales’ gallery on Allen. We were busy discussing an upcoming project that he was working on when I noticed a model sitting on a nearby table. I asked him what the model represented and he told answered that it was a new renovation taking place at the corner of Lafayette and Niagara, deep on the city’s West Side. What had originally caught my eye (on the model) was an unusual looking extrusion sitting on top of the soon-to-be structure. I hinted to Brad that we would be interested in paying a visit to the project and he said that he would see what he could do.
Yesterday I received a phone call from Barbara Rowe, artist and co-owner of Abaca Press (along with her husband Peter Sowiski, also an artist) who inquired whether I would like to come take a look at the project in motion. I agreed to meet up and headed over to Lafayette to see what the two were working on. As I drove towards Niagara (on Lafayette) I could not help but notice that at the end of the avenue sat the old Schaefer Brewing Company, which was in the process of being demolished at that very moment. As I approached Niagara I looked to my left where a single story brick structure sat, and realized that I had arrived to my destination.
Upon walking through the front door of the building I was greeted by a few people who had gathered to watch the demolition through the newly installed picture windows. My first question that I asked of Barbara and Peter was whether I was standing in a business or a personal dwelling. “It’s going to be a studio/ living accommodation,” Barbara replied. “Peter and I both work with presses. We own a company called Abaca Press (10 years), but this space is going to be dedicated to print and papermaking, etching, screen-printing, and relief and digital block printing. The front will be dedicated to the studio and the back will serve as our residence.
I asked Peter why he chose Niagara Street for the project. “There are a lot more artists in the are than you think. I like the rough quality of the buildings and we were looking for an urban feeling that this area definitely provides.” During this conversation I don’t think one of us ever took our eyes off of the building being demolished across the street. “I love to hear the trains go by along the river, and when the brewery comes down we will actually be able to see the water. This is a diamond in the ultra-rough… we love the West Side and you really can’t get any further West than this. Take a look across Lafayette… there’s Santasiero’s Restaurant. This part of town has a lot of history, and slowly there are changes occurring that will redefine what Niagara Street will eventually look like.”
Though the building does not look very big from the outside, the single-storey interior boasts a whopping 4200 sq.’ of live/work space. The couple recently sold their home near Richmond Avenue in preparation for the move, and have since lived with friends and neighbors (plus traveling) until the remodeling is complete. The interior of the building is comprised of exposed wood rafters and iron beams for the high ceilings and original old wood planked floors – both ceiling and floor were major projects due to water damage and improper care over the years. Many of the windows had been filled in with cement, and a damp smell had permeated throughout, requiring the wood floors (towards the back) to be replaced with terracotta stained radiant-heat concrete floors. Then there was the accumulation of 'stuff' that had to be removed from the building... they were already on their 10th dumpster load. Once all of the excess junk was removed, the beauty of the interior could be seen... expansive open-areas, combined with well thought out little rooms where closets and drafting nooks will one day be found.
Both Barbara and Peter are accomplished artists whose works can be found showing at such places as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Castellani Art Museum and Burchfield-Penney Art Center. That means that this new location will have to function as a live/work space and showroom for their clients. Brad Wales (Architect) and DMR Contracting are working closely with the couple in order to build a totally unique design concept that will be both functional and breathtaking. Every inch of the interior serves a purpose. There are storage areas built into the vaulted ceilings, glass look-sees from one room to the next, industrial materials, such as steel, encasing the staircase that leads to the observation deck on the roof, a skylight serving to light the far corner of the studio, (soon-to-be) glass walls dividing the live/work spaces… it is these types of old industrial buildings that make city living a truly unique and fun experience.
The staircase alone is worth a visit to this home. After walking through a steel fabricated corridor that encloses the stairs, a sudden left turn finds you at the bottom of an enclosed metallic gateway to the roof. Halfway up the stairs is a pillbox artillery window that allows you to see into the work area… totally cool. Upon reaching the top of the stairs the visitor is presented with an alcove that might eventually contain a couch with a treadmill… or maybe even a lofted guest quarter for their sons?
One step outside onto the rooftop (that will one day feature a rooftop garden and deck) is a real eye-opener. From there the river is in plain view, as is the rail bridge and the riverside park system. “That’s where we jog”, Peter pointed out to me. “The sunsets from up here are breathtaking, see over there (pointing at a building on Niagara), that’s Penny’s Paw Prints where we take our dog Phoenix to get groomed. Eventually the wall of our pilot house will be glassed-in and we’ll be able to sit and watch everything taking place in the neighborhood from inside.”
The three of us (four with Phoenix) then traipsed back down the stairs where the tour was to end. The kitchen and the bed and bathroom are lit by picture window after picture window of natural light. A butler’s pantry and library nook can be found just past where the center island will soon be installed. Once again, cutouts in the wall expose the kitchen to the hallway and serves to let natural light (and order and pick-up stations for the kids) into the corridor. There is a fairly large garden in the back that will be perfect for Barbara and her green thumb – her former garden is being featured in the soon-to-be-released Garden Walk coffee-table book.
Barbara and Peter were very fortunate to find this great spot on Lafayette and BRO will be revisiting their digs once the project has been completed. These guys have chosen to call Niagara Street their neighborhood, and believe it or not a short walk down the avenue and they are standing at the doorstep of Guercio’s Market on Grant. Parks and bike paths surround this neighborhood and the industrial setting makes this area desirable for those who have a vision and desire for ultra-urban living.
Wow! These are the kind of people the make Buffalo such a treasure.
This is nice. I'd like to see some more images of the final design. Images of this "unusual extrusion" would be nice. "Sounds exciting!
Here's a big pat on the back to Barbara and Peter for putting an old building back into productive use and for contributing to the city's cultural scene. Niagara Street has been treated badly and will recover only when people who have a stake there fight for it.
I wouldn't count on having a nice view where the malting plant stood. That demolition was not legal and it got the secretary of the Buffalo Preservation Board suspended, rightly so. How much you want to bet that something worse takes its place--a suburbanesque corporate pharmacy, a parking lot, an access ramp to a new Peace Bridge, who knows?
Living across the street from Santasiero's could be a real problem for me....MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm m m m m m m
Regarding the sentiment expressed by "Camera Ready": I have no idea why that poster thinks the demo was illegal. The city itself, according to one of several building inspectors to the site (featured here) awarded the contract. The company I work for has been building the Sawicki/Rowe residence/studios for many months now and we've been daily witness to the slow, but ofttimes spectacular demolition, of the old Schaeffer brewery mentioned. The building has/had absolutely nothing to recommend it insofar as adaptive use. It was largely a tangled mass of internal grain storage elevators/cylinders (each approximately 15' wide by 4 stories), and ancient conveyance systems: ductwork, piping, conveyors, elevators, etc.) The entire structure was extremely chopped up--three small-footprint, incredibly dense masonry and reinforced concrete structures structures of (otherwise) diverse construction attached together
physically only (beyond the last usable function)--not at all amenable to easy adaptation (as opposed to something like a warehourse, for example, or a large open-floored factory like the Trico factories in Buffalo which HAVE been successfully adapted).
There is a kneee-jerk mentality in Buffalo that ANY old building is worth saving. This sensibility is pure nonsense. If there is architectural value then yes. If there is an economically feasible adaptation to some other use which can be done with private money, or with public if there is a public advantage to be had,
then fine. I am all for recycling in virtually every arena of human endeavor, but not simply for the sake of recycling. The costs can be astronomical.
So, if some private investor wants to put his money on the line, let him, but as far as taxpayer funding goes, let's consider the realities! Something truly historic, artful, adaptable and useful providing a lasting cultural and economic benefit, go for it, by all means.
Thanks for the update Zatox. Any news on what might be in store for that site in the future? Who owns it, etc.
Barb and Pete are truely a fun couple to keep our eye on watching what they will do next -- hope you keep us posted
Zatox.
The brewery building not withstanding....Buffalo has NOT had a knee jerk reaction to SAVE EVERYTHING. It has been quite the opposite as a matter of fact. The city has been on a rampage to DESTROY EVERYTHING over that last 60 years. This myth that preservationist are holding back progress is getting to be a tired mantra. A vast majority of recent development has come about because of preservationists and in spite of those who would have been happy with another parking lot or gas station.
That being said. This cleared brewery site is a prime piece of lane with spectacular views of the river. Here is to hoping that this new shovel ready site does not stay as such for long.
Steel,
Maybe your experience has been different than mine, but what I see is too many fairly nondescript edifices being held up as "architecturally significant". I love the idea of preservation, please don't misunderstand me, and I value what preservationists do. The historic slip at the waterfront, the efforts at the Central Terminal, the HH Richardson Buffalo psych center, the Darwin Martin House (duh)--all these are clearly worthwhile, but forcing utility of whatever it was that's been incorporated into the new Blue Cross building? Hand wringing over the "lost" facades in the theatre district? The Canadianna?? Please! These places are not the Larkin Building.
I think a little bit needs to be clear insofar as the part the city, as a legal entity, plays in these things. The city (aside from the present demo job under discussion) is not the one doing (as in "calling for") the demo, it merely awards permits for demolition to people or corporations who own a piece of property and wish to proceed with demolition of that property. The city is under no obligation to anyone to NOT issue that permit. If there is a desire on the part of a particular group representing outside interests (i.e., the larger public), that outside interest ought to have been involved in the preservation process--ideally with the property owners-- long before the permit was issued. (Why is it that we never hear of any efforts to save buildings until the bulldozers are knocking holes in those structures?) If nothing has been done to "save" a structure, and an injunction is issued by a judge is the last gasp, the city then is obligated to put a stop order on the job, halting demolition. (All this calls to mind the multiple pleading attempts by architect Sebastien Tauriello many years ago to save the Darwin Martin House...and the subsequent deaf ear turned to him by every institution he approached.) I just want to see the distinction being made between businessmen and city employees doing the job they were hired to do. It is not the city which is on a "rampage" to destroy "everything".
Also, I neither stated nor implied that preservationists are holding back progress; far from it. I think it IS safe to say that they DO, invariably, hold up PROCESS. But oftentimes, when the issues at hand are the type of things we discuss here, process and progress are two completely different things.