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Urban Design Project to showcase a decade of work in exhibit
By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor
Since 1991, the Urban Design Project in the School of Architecture and Planning has been involved in many of the most significant and promising city-building efforts seen in the Buffalo-Niagara region. Under the direction of Robert Shibley, professor of urban design, it has been involved in plans for downtown revitalization, the reclamation of the region's waterfront, the regeneration of the city's neighborhoods and strategizing for tourism development.
A graphic and textual record of selected work produced by the Urban Design Project will be on display tomorrow in the James Dyett Gallery on the third floor of Hayes Hall, South Campus.
The exhibit, which will run through March 27, will kick off "Atelier '04," the annual gala exhibit of faculty and student work at the School of Architecture and Planning. For a full schedule of events for "Atelier," go to http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol35/vol35n24/articles/Atelier.html.
The school will host an opening reception for "The Urban Design Project" at 4:30 p.m. in the Dyett Gallery that will feature a brief talk by Shibley about the work of the institute.
The reception will be free and open to the public.
"The exhibit will be organized around three themes that encompass three strands of project work: revitalizing the city center, reclaiming the waterfront and re-imagining the region," says Brian Carter, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning.
"Revitalizing the Center" begins with the work of the school's graduate studios in urban and regional planning, which produced strategies for redeveloping Buffalo's lower West Side. It continues through the first Downtown Summit, the Buffalo Neighborhood Summits and all the planning and implementation management that led up to the detailed and deeply-researched "The Queen City Hub: A Regional Action Plan for Downtown Buffalo," produced this year by Shibley and his associates.
"Reclaiming the Waterfront," says Carter, "involves an array of the institute's projects—from Toronto to South Buffalo and places in between—that dealt with the repair of industrial'brownfields along our waterfront, the promotion of public access to waterfront resources and waterfront redevelopment in Niagara Falls, Buffalo and lake-to-lake."
"'Re-imagining the region,'" he says, "began with an Urban Design Project effort known as 'Re-thinking the Niagara Frontier.' It brought together leaders in business, government, culture, environmental study and conservation, education and other fields to talk about the potential for development across our bi-national region."
Subsequent work by the institute has included supporting the National Park Service study on a Niagara National Heritage Area, work on a cultural tourism strategy for Erie and Niagara counties, and a proposal to designate an International Niagara Peace Park.
"We strive to manifest the university's mission of research, teaching and service in every engagement," Shibley notes. "At the same time, we hope to suggest new ways in which the region might see itself and its future."
The opening reception will be followed at 5:30 p.m. by the annual Atelier Lecture, this year featuring Francine Houben, founding partner of the architectural firm Mecanoo, located in Delft, The Netherlands. The lecture will be held in 301 Crosby Hall, next door to Hayes.