CONNECTING
BROADWAY-FILLMORE
CONNECTING THE BROADWAY-FILLMORE TRIANGLE
At the heart of Buffalo’s East Side, opportunity knocks in the Broadway-Fillmore Triangle. Between the Buffalo Central Terminal and the Broadway Market, a neighborhood with a very rich history has unfortunately suffered from decades of disinvestment, segregation, and aggressive demolition efforts. At the same time, new breweries, clubs, and creative centers are opening up in what we coin the Broadway-Fillmore Triangle. This website shows the results of an interdisciplinary Architecture and Urban Planning studio at the University at Buffalo, completed in the fall of 2021. Here, you can see the outcomes of thorough analysis of the neighborhood, visions for its improvements, and urban designs for strategic blocks and streets within the neighborhood.
This work has been generously supported by the Broadway-Fillmore NHS, the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation, and the Broadway Market.
ANALYSIS
This page describes the history of the Broadway-Fillmore Triangle, which strongly influences the area's opportunities and challenges today.
The Broadway-Fillmore Triangle is outlined through comprehensive plans to include buildings such as the Central Terminal, Broadway Market, and the East Side Corridor Fund. These plans share one common goal which is to protect the fabric, character, history, and the community within the Broadway-Fillmore Triangle. The plans lay out objectives to revitalize the area and bring economic growth, increase employment, improve green infrastructure, and provide residential neighborhood stabilization. Many of the projects within these plans have received or have plans to receive private funding. Not only were investors heavily interested in these plans, the community within and surrounding the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood were actively engaged.
Morphology/Typology within the Broadway Fillmore neighborhood was completed as an in-depth land use analysis that set out to understand the greater character of the neighborhood.
The analysis of public space inquires about existing open spaces and how they are currently used or plan to be used, with a deeper exploration of vacant land. It takes a critical look at public transportation networks and the condition of sidewalk infrastructure. It also studies signs of trust and distrust and recognizes patterns or correlations of neighborhood eye-level structure. The analysis led to new findings about the built infrastructure and its relationship to the community’s social capital. These discoveries can be used to guide future recommendations for the permanent use of open space.
The residents and stakeholders of the Broadway-Fillmore Triangle answered 6 open ended questions to help identify the needs of the community. Many of the needs shared by both the residents and stakeholders were similar. Residents hope to see the diversity of their neighborhood remain, small businesses to thrive, infill housing and development, and to see widespread improvements to infrastructure and homes. This community engagement will prove to be an important asset during the next phase of the report
VISIONS AND DESIGNS
Five student teams have prepared visions and urban designs for a more connected, vibrant, sustainable, and include Broadway-Fillmore triangle. You can see their visions and designs below.
This vision proposes to bring vibrancy to the community without compromising who makes up that community. With a variety of housing options, public space including green space Broadway-Fillmore should be a walkable, accessible, dense, thriving community that prioritizes amenities for those already living there and elevates their quality of life without displacement.
This vision reconnects the study area at multiple scales of intervention. Reconnections are used to create a thriving and vibrant community.
This vision focuses on the expansion of green infrastructure, the addition of family-oriented amenities, and investments in both accessible housing and commercial development.
This vision creates a more equitable and sustainable future for the Broadway Fillmore Triangle, by improving urban access to more housing, more amenities, and better open space.
This vision uses Broadway-Fillmore's ample opportunities for new development and redevelopment of roadways, vacant land, vacant structures, and greenspace. Together, they can become building blocks for the rejuvenation of the neighborhood.
