The Benchmark Group presented a revised façade for a mixed-use building located at 770 Elmwood Avenue. The three-story building will include retail space along Elmwood and 24 apartments on the upper floors. It would be built on a surface parking lot located between Globe Market and 7-11 and include covered parking for 25 cars. The Frizlen Group is project architect. Plans for the project received a chilly reception at a public forum held last night at the Buffalo History Museum.
From The Buffalo News:
Frizlen, who also designed new mixed-use buildings at 504 Elmwood and 448 Elmwood at Bryant Street, talked about how he made modifications to his original plan to soften the facade, which includes precast limestone and lap siding panels, to reflect the character of the neighborhood.
Several residents criticized the look of the building as too modern, too flat or too much like the building at Elmwood and Bryant.
Dan Sack took Frizlen to task for the pre-cast limestone. “It’s not limestone. It’s made to look like limestone. It’s a cheap imitation,” he contended.
He also cited a wall of concrete blocks facing Grenway Alley at the rear of the building. “It’s a street,” he asserted. “Concrete block is not allowed to be visible from any street.”
Most of the complaints, however, were about parking. A West Ferry Street woman said her block was jammed on both sides with parked cars every weekend. Business owners said elderly customers were complaining about how hard it was to find parking places.
From ‘Homestar’ on SkyScraperCity’s Buffalo Development News forum:
I went to the meeting about the proposed 770 Elmwood Apartment building tonight. Ugh. I wish more people from this website went. You would not believe the level of criticism Frizlen and Benchmark received for parking issues that aren’t his responsibility and aren’t under his control.
They made it sound like this one project is going to annihilate every last open parking space in the entire Elmwood Village. One speaker went so far as to glorify the beautiful open space and open air provided by the existing surface parking lot. The aesthetics of the building were slammed too. I give the developers a lot of credit for having to sit through these types of meetings. It’s draining.
What bothers me the most is how these very vocal and politically active people are the one influencing the direction of our city. It’s amazing any progress happens at all.