2005-12-29T18:47:00.000-05:00

David Granville and Chris Brown are co-committee chairs in this endeavor. While demolition should never be the first strategy when dealing with any building in need of repair, it has become a practical reality in our City. If demolitions must take place, one of three things can happen to the architectural elements within these structures: they are either destroyed and land-filled; salvaged by either demolition companies or completely unregulated third parties to be sold to the highest bidder; or salvaged by a local organization to be used on another property in the City of Buffalo. The aim of this committee is to avoid the first two alternatives and ensure the third.

With the current number of scheduled demolitions, for which there has been no architectural salvage, this committee merits the consideration of the Collaborative. If salvaged elements from Buffalo’s unique 19th Century housing stock can be reinstalled into other City homes, which require period elements for restoration, this recycling can motivate all residents to enhance their homes and property values while providing the extra lift for neighborhoods and overall housing stock.

This Committee will first define its role to ensure that its goal can be attained without encouraging demolition, and will then seek to create the challenging process necessary to remove significant elements safely before demolition, protect them for future reuse, and ultimately transfer them to appropriate properties.

NPC Architectural Salvage