The Slow Death of Paul Rudolph’s Brutalist Vision for the Buffalo Waterfront - CityLab
▻http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/06/the-slow-death-of-a-brutalist-vision-for-buffalo/394574
John Schmidt likes his apartment. The 57-year-old moved into Shoreline, an affordable housing complex in downtown Buffalo, New York, seven years ago after suffering a severe heart attack.
“I can look out over the Niagara River and see Canada and Lake Erie,” Schmidt says over the phone from his 6th floor unit. “The trees in this part of the complex are still standing and they’re lovely. And there’s a spot right down there that some of the families use for big outdoor picnics and birthday parties and where the kids can go and play.”
The Important Buildings We Lost in 2015 - CityLab
▻http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/12/the-buildings-we-lost-in-2015/421890
Brutalism lost the good fight in 2015. One of its most important icons, the Orange County Government Center in Goshen, New York, fell to the wrecking ball this year. Paul Rudolph’s many-eyed monster should still be standing today.
“For me,” Schmidt adds, “it’s perfect.”
Shoreline debuted in 1974, a barely realized vision for Buffalo’s waterfront dreamt up by the architect Paul Rudolph. Today, age and poor management are catching up to a complex that was arguably doomed from the start.
Demolition crews began work on five buildings containing 137 apartments at Shoreline last month. (There were 426 at Shoreline prior to demolition, 89 of which had been offline for a decade.) Norstar Development, owners of the complex since 2005, have a $14 million plan to construct eight new buildings with 48 apartments in its place. Once additional funds are secured, they hope to demolish more along Niagara street, building new units in phases.❞