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 2009 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 this page 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 will provide a lifelong learning opportunity!
The following links may be helpful in developing a possible new stadium site:
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Top Ten Reasons for the Bills Stadium @ Central Terminal Site in Buffalo
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‘Tour de Neglect’ reveals huge challenges, incremental progress on Buffalo’s East Side – Buffalo News, May 10. 2014
- Congressman Brian Higgins presentation, Annual Meeting, Western New York Land Conservancy – May 16, 2014
- Stadium site guessing game has begun – Buffalo News, May 27, 2014
(The Buffalo News published the following letter on May 27, 2014.)
Central Terminal site ideal for Bills Stadium
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
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