True Green Cities/Celebrating Ten+ Years: “Pointing About Town” with a Women-Owned Business

True Green Cities/Celebrating Ten+ Years: “Pointing About Town” with a Women-Owned Business

Celebrating Ten+ Years!  It’s been twelve years since I launched Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning, PLLC and while many things have changed, my goal to work on “greening what’s already here” continues to be met, often in places I never expected. 

“Pointing About Town” as a Solopreneur

My office partner (and sister) writes a blog called Making a Point and writes a regular series entitled “Pointing About Town” about small business owners.  One of her first pieces was about BAC/Architecture + Planning, PLLC.  We did a photo shoot in front of my recent projects, the Buffalo Central Terminal.  With the Smith Group, I worked on the Master Plan for this towering Buffalo landmark.  The Master Plan and an accompanying Neighborhood Plan for the Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood were completed in 2021.  

It’s been an interesting year, finishing some great projects and getting ready to start some even more terrific ones.  But the stresses of running a small business continue to be a struggle.  In fact several of my colleagues and I are running a panel entitled “Keeping Micro-businesses & Solopreneurs Relevant and Resilient” at this year’s AIA Convention in San Francisco in June.  My sister’s “Making a Point” weekly blog discusses these small business issues.  If you have a small business or are considering opening your own business, I would suggest you bookmark “Making a Point”!

All week I will be posting updates about current and upcoming projects.  My actual business anniversary is April 19^th. 

True Green Cities/Celebrating Ten+ Years: Karpeles Library – A Church Conversion

True Green Cities/Celebrating Ten+ Years: Karpeles Library – A Church Conversion

Celebrating Ten+ Years!  It’s been twelve years since I launched Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning, PLLC and while many things have changed, my goal to work on “greening what’s already here” continues to be met, often in places I never expected. 

An Urban University Saves a Local Church

The former Plymouth Methodist Episcopal Church/Karpeles Library and Manuscript Museum was built in 1912, designed by Architect Cyrus K. Porter & Sons.  The Church and the adjacent Parsonage were listed as a local individual City of Buffalo landmark in 1989.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing component to the Fargo Estate National Register Historic District in 2016. It was recently purchased from D’Youville University.    It’s down the street from the University, which is embedded in the West side of Buffalo, and with its towering cupola and bell tower will be a wonderful new icon for D’Youville.

It’s National Register listing states:  Contributing primary limestone auditorium plan 2-story Romanesque-style former church, polygonal hip roof, with a pair of large gables with round arch stained glass windows flanking a 4-story square tower, limestone foundation and exterior walls, red tile roof with clerestory at summit surmounted by a polygonal cupola with pointed roof. Round arch windows throughout, many with stained glass. Triple arch entrance porticoes on Porter and Jersey streets.  

BAC is working with Cannon Design to restore this landmark and convert it into programming space for the University.  Fortunately, its large central auditorium lends itself for a new lecture space so few changes need to be made to its historic interior.  

True Green Cities/Celebrating Ten+ Years: Larkin Men’s Club

True Green Cities/Celebrating Ten+ Years: Larkin Men’s Club – Once a Convent, Then a Men’s Club, Now Market Rate Housing

Celebrating Ten+ Years!  It’s been twelve years since I launched Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning, PLLC and while many things have changed, my goal to work on “greening what’s already here” continues to be met, often in places I never expected. 

Rehabilitating a Neighborhood Building with a Storied Past

Over the past five years I have been working on a lovely building in the Larkinville neighborhood of Buffalo, about a mile Southeast of downtown.  The owners wanted to rehabilitate the 1889/1904 building now known as the Larkin Men’s Club, which had been vacant for years, for new housing using historic tax credits.  It was not a simple route to get there.  After preparing a Determination of Eligibility for the building, the State Historic Preservation Office informed us that our best path was to get the local historic district listed as a federal Certified Historic District.  The owner was willing to support that given they have a variety of buildings in the district.  The Larkin Certified Historic District was certified July 22, 2019.  The district is significant under Criterion A for its contributions to the evolution of the American mail order retail business.  The Larkin Company was one of the great industrial concerns of the United States. At the company’s peak around 1919, its factory complex occupied 65 acres of floor area and employed about 2,000 people in the manufacture of hundreds of household products, sold by mail order to customers across North America. Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic masterpiece – the Larkin Headquarters, was located adjacent to this site (but demolished in 1950.)

The Larkin Men’s Club

The Larkin Men’s Club is a contributing component to the Larkin Certified Historic District. The Part 1 for this project was approved on December 12, 2019.   The building at 696 Seneca Street is the only remaining building from the original campus of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a German-language Catholic parish established in 1875. Built as a church rectory and convent, the Larkin’s Men’s Club property consists of two, Late Victorian Italianate two-story red brick buildings on the eastern end of the former church property. The church complex included the church (1876; demolished in 1936), the parochial school (c. 1878, demolished before 1931), the rectory (1889), and the convent (1904). These two remaining buildings, the rectory and the convent, comprise the Larkin Men’s Club which were joined into a single structure by a two-story hyphen in 1918.

The 1889 rectory building (south wing), designed by Architect Raymond Huber, is two-and-a-half stories high, rectangular with a rear “L”, with a hip roof. It is constructed of red brick with a cut limestone foundation below a projecting stone water table. The building features acentral bay rising to a corbeled gable, topped by a sheet metal parapet, round arched entrance openings, plain windows with concrete sills on the first floor, stone sills supported by corbeled brick brackets at the windows on the second floor, and segmental brick arch lintels (topped by projecting cut brick hoods) with carved stone keystones. The second-floor window of the central bay features a round arch opening with a carved stone keystone, above which is a blind brick oculus.

The 1904 convent building (north wing), designed by architect Carl Schmill, is two-and-a-half stories high, rectangular with a hip roof. A two-story flat roof hyphen connects it to the 1889 building. It is constructed of red brick with a quarry faced limestone foundation. Windows feature quarry faced sandstone sills and heavy lintels. The central entrance, reached by stone stairs, is also recessed beneath a heavy stone lintel. A one-story porch projects on the west side of the building, supported by two original pilasters.

What’s Next?

Working with Schneider Architectural Services, our team submitted a Part 2 (historic tax credit application) to the SHPO and NPS for the building’s rehabilitation in October.  As often happens with these projects, we have had various discussions with SHPO and the NPS regarding the design approach.  We anticipate starting construction later this spring, reactivating a hole in an important historic district and story in America.  

True Green Cities/Celebrating Ten+ Years: Restoring the Buffalo Central Terminal

Celebrating Ten+ Years!  It’s been twelve years since I launched Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning, PLLC and while many things have changed, my goal to work on “greening what’s already here” continues to be met, often in places I never expected. 

Announcing Two Major New Projects on Our 12^th Anniversary

The Buffalo Central Terminal, Concourse & Tower, Photo by Barbara Campagna

We are happy to share that on our 12^th anniversary, the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation (CTRC) in Buffalo, NY has announced that BAC/Architecture + Planning, PLLC has been awarded two projects at Buffalo’s iconic train station – the Buffalo Central Terminal. The Terminal opened in 1929 from the designs of Fellheimer & Wagner, the same architects who designed Grand Central Terminal.  BAC was the local preservation architect on the team led by the SmithGroup who prepared a master plan for the Terminal and a neighborhood plan for the adjacent Broadway Fillmore Neighborhood in 2021.

Excerpts from the Press Release

The CTRC has 1) launched Phase 2 of major capital improvements, 2) engaged an architecture and engineering team to oversee the project, 3) engaged a team to complete a required Historic Structures Report and Cultural Landscape Report, 4) invited finalists to submit proposals for a private development partner. Here is the full press release.

Completion of Historic Structures Report and Cultural Landscape Report

A Historic Structures Report and Cultural Landscape Report will take place this year and the final report will be completed in October, 2023. A Historic Structure Report and Cultural Landscape Report are important preservation and rehabilitation tools to guide decision-making, in our case about how to respectfully utilize and or modify historic preservation features. This work is also a foundation to obtain state and federal historic tax credits. Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning, PLLC, a nationally known local preservation architect with a team of nearly all MWBE firms has been engaged to undertake this work. Additional team members are:  Design Synergies Architecture for architectural documentation; Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architecture as landscape architect; Robinson & Associates, Inc. as landscape historian; SmithGroup  as preservation peer advisor; Silman as structural engineer; Altieri Wieber Sebor, LLC as mechanical, electrical, plumbing engineer; Jablonski Building Conservation as building conservationist; Nancy J. Parisi as project photographer; and Get Fresh Industries, Inc. as graphic designer and for report layout.

Phase 2 Capital Improvements

A major construction project is starting, utilizing a portion of the Regional Revitalization Partnership funding. This phase will address the highest priority safety and stabilization issues, reopen the Passenger Concourse for public access on a limited basis, and expand use of the Plaza and the Great Lawn. Work includes: addressing structural issues in the Main Terminal Building and parking plaza, including the parking deck and the Guastavino tiles in the Passenger Concourse, and repair of severely leaking roofs at the east side of the Main Terminal Building.

This second major capital phase builds on the capital work completed in 2019-2022 which focused a $5 million investment from Empire State Development on repair and replacement of the former restaurant roof – ending severe water infiltration and damage. Additional companion work included new roof drains, repair of a collapsed sewer line for drainage, asbestos abatement, masonry repairs, and repair of a portion of the barrel roof. The former restaurant area is now dry, and ready for the next phase of construction.

Engagement of an Architecture & Engineering Team

After a competitive process that began in November 2022, Quinn Evans was selected to serve as the prime architect for the Phase 2 Capital Improvements. The project will involve a multi-disciplinary team of consultants, including several local and MWBE firms, including Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning and Design Synergies Architecture.  Additional team members are: Silman as structural engineer; GHD as fire protection and life safety engineer; Tredo Engineers as civil and environmental engineer; Jablonski Building Conservation as building conservationist; and Dharam Consulting as cost estimator.

Quinn Evans, among the nation’s largest women-owned architecture and planning firms, has extensive experience in the renovation, restoration, and adaptive use of historic buildings, including our nation’s early twentieth-century, industrial train stations. The firm is currently working on the modernization of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station as well as Baltimore’s Penn Station and has completed numerous rehabilitation projects for Amtrak.

Phase 2 of construction is a $13-$16 million project that will start in April, 2023 with assessment and design, construction documents and bidding in 2023/2024 and construction in 2024/2025. 

---