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Project Story
Unique and memorable urban waterfronts do not always have a pretty start or a clean past. In Buffalo, Fisher’s team of planners saw past the decades of environmental contamination and urban renewal demolition to propose a re-imagined waterfront that leveraged its unique characteristics and promoted sustainable development.
The NYS Brownfield Opportunity Area Program (BOA) is one of the few planning options for municipalities to revitalize brownfield sites in urban areas. Fisher worked with the City of Buffalo to assist it through the BOA planning process to create the Buffalo Harbor Nomination Study. The 1,045-acre study area included the Inner and Outer Harbors, a portion of downtown, and a residential neighborhood along Niagara Street. Fisher’s planners brought big ideas to the table for two key areas of the study:
Waterfront Village Concept: As an artificially created waterfront development site, the area had been used by industry for decades. It was later developed as a corporate office park predominantly occupied by expansive parking and sprawling buildings. Fisher’s planners recommended the re-introduction of the historic Erie Street alignment while maximizing the potential for a new walkable, dense, and mixed-use urban waterfront with increased economic potential.
Niagara Park Concept: Urban renewal left its mark on this neighborhood. Fisher’s planners saw the opportunity to re-use the empty space between highway ramps for a new linear park to connect a historic neighborhood to an existing urban waterfront park.
Fisher supported the study through an inventory and analysis of existing conditions, identification of brownfield sites, creation of a brownfield database, identification of strategic sites, and with the preparation of strategic site profiles.
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