Month: August 2012

Sign Your Green Building Up for the Green Building Tour of WNY!

I am co chairing the event again this year for WNYSEA. It’s a big deal. Sign up your green building today!

The WNY Sustainable Energy Association (WNYSEA) is preparing for the annual Solar & Green Building Open House  tour, which is slated for Saturday, October 13th, 2012. The organization is currently looking for homes and other buildings to be on the tour, so if you own a building that has some environmentally friendly, “green” features consider showing it off for the tour. By signing up to be a tour site, you have the ability to educate interested people about your green features. WNYSEA is looking for solar, geothermal, green building, energy efficiency, LEED, green roofs, passive solar, net zero, bale on bale construction and more. For more information and to sign up, click the link here.

About the tour: The self-guided tour is free and open to the public from 10am to 4pm on 10/13/12. Once all the buildings and sites have been identified, WNYSEA will compile a list of addresses and make the information available to the public. There is no sign up to attend the tour, you go at your own pace and see what you want to see. This way if there is a specific place or element you are most interested in, you can be sure to see it.

Green Building Open House is a tour across the Northeast that is promoted by the parent organization, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NSEA) and happens for one day only. It’s all about education and getting the experience from accomplished building owners so that more people can integrate similar features in their own buildings.

Last year there were forty-five sites across Erie and Niagara Counties, which was the largest tour in New York State. For more information email wnysea@gmail.com or go to www.wnysea.com.

Insanely Amazing Event Alert: City of Night // Sept 8th 2012 // GRAIN ELEVATOR PARTY!

Celebrate Buffalo and come party in the Grain Elevators..LEGALLY. 

Seriously, this is going to be something really incredible. Art. History. Music. Movies on the Elevators.  Next year it won’t be free because the love for our grain elevators is exploding. Be the first, enjoy yourself and bask in how incredible Buffalo was and still is.

Get on it.  Here is the Facebook event page.

Preservation Plus : Accepting Proposals Until Monday, August 13th, 2012!

Spread the word!!!

The Preservation Plus Conference is accepting Session Proposals until Monday, August 13th. They are looking for field sessions and educational. The app is easy to fill out too.

Here is more info on the call for proposals which was featured on BRO today.

A little FYI – Preservation Plus is going to be a week long conference in September with a focus on Preservation but also with a focus on sustainability, smart growth, urbanism and community revitalization. I think we all know how critical it is to promote and educate the public on these topics in order to see continued success in Buffalo.
Here is the website – http://www.presplusbuffalo.com/
Go Buffalo!

Toronto’s Underpass Park Should Inspire Buffalo: Let’s Light Up the Skyway.

Disclaimer – I cannot tear the skyway down so take your anger out on the DOT, not me… Thank you!

Here is an idea…

Buffalo has a skyway. Let’s light it up!!

Ok, here me out here. It’s not very pretty, no one likes it and it does a great job at disconnecting our Canalside district from Downtown. Considering the City of Buffalo just invested in the skyways infrastructure.. we pretty much have to deal with it. The Peace Bridge has seen new life through the use of lighting… the skyway should be next in line.

So where does this inspiration come from!!??? Toronto,of course!

When visiting Toronto this weekend, I saw this underpass shining brightly with LEDs! What a simple way to light up a usually vacant, lifeless space. Of course, the lights in Toronto reminded me of the Buffalo skyway, so I decided to do some research.

I found out that the lights are a permanent Toronto art project called “water table” to represent the waters of Lake Ontario. Click here for more information and see the video embeded below. The art project was a simple idea which required a fairly simple install. Most importantly, the lights helps to connect a walk way between the river and downtown, providing a safe and seamless transfer from one area to the next. Neat!

Well, when doing some more digging, I realized that just this week, Toronto celebrated the opening of The Underpass Park that is equipped with a skate park and playground. The area is nicely lit and open for all ages to enjoy. What a great use of space! You can find some incredible images of the new park here.

So, that brings us back to Buffalo… A few months back, Buffalorising posted this article about an LED pilot project that lit the skyway up at night. The question is, where is the follow up? Will it ever be permanent? We haven’t heard anything more since the pilot. Lighting would be a great addition to all of the wonderful things happening in the Canalside district.

Lets light up the skyway, Buffalo!

Video Credit: Jason Wilson.

Toronto!

I have so much city/urbanism ideas to blog about when I get back to Buffalo about Toronto…

In the mean time here’s a shot from a rooftop!

More to come….

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Buffalo LOVE!

Today my blog is posted on CNN.. so while I have the worlds attention for one minute I want to say this: I LOVE BUFFALO and YOU should too!

Come visit and see how incredible this city is. The history, the architecture, the raw / rustbelt feel … its an incredible city that is on pushing over the edge into an abyss of awesomeness.  We have  houses you can buy for a dollar, incredible festivals for free all summer and plenty of concerts/shows/ theatre & art to keep anyone entertained… and more!

BUFFALOVE!

Buffalo Bocce League 2013?

Who wants to join a 2013 Buffalo Bocce League?

Let me tell you about Providence, RI’s Downtown Bocce League… and why Buffalo is the perfect candidate for something like this!

First of all – Go to this link and check out Providence’s Bocce Team Page.. Great website! (Link to Website Here)

Here is why this is awesome.

The Bocce Court  is set on a vacant land parcel in the downtown core of Providence. The vacant lot also has a white screen to show movies when Bocce is not in session! Double use of vacant land!  Buffalo has a bunch of great vacant lots that are sitting there lifeless… why not convert one into a combo Bocce / Movie center? This is a simple, almost temporary use of a vacant lot but beats having a lifeless, half mowed lot and can bring life to an area!

Most importantly, by the reaction and results in Providence, you can tell this is so much fun and soooo hip! The Bocce League has parties, they hang out, they play…  there is a link below about their league. Check it out. Their team names and party fliers scream urban city dwellers that appreciate good fonts.

So why doesn’t Buffalo have one? Lets start thinking about where this could happen and how we can fund the costs for the initial start up. I will start the first team  – Team Buffalove and will contribute $50.00 towards this cause.

Let’s do this, Buffalo! Buffalo Bocce League 2013!

Providence Downtown City Bocce League – Link

Bocce in Downtown Providence – Photo Credit from the link above!