A building’s journey from ruin to revival is one of struggle and patience, and one that ultimately can either renew a community or fail it completely. With harsh winters, high rates of building abandonment and lack of funds-- Buffalo may seem like a horrible place to look for preservation success stories, and yet there are many advocates for preservation willing to jump through all the hoops to save historic buildings.
Finding Funding
Where many in Buffalo see abandoned buildings and impossible construction cost, Tom Yots, executive director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara, sees opportunities.
“We have phenomenal building stock here in Buffalo,” he explained in his office at the historic Market Arcade building, “I say it often, but Buffalo was rich at the right time when all of these phenomenal buildings were being built.”
“But then we were poor at the right time,” he said, “during the 1970s and 80s when other cities were demolishing all of that and building shinning new skyscrapers we didn’t have any money to do that.”
“We have one of the oldest building stocks in the country with the city of Buffalo,” said Jason Wilson, Director of Operations at Preservation Buffalo Niagara.
“It’s something like 62% of our buildings were built before 1940 in our downtown core – I mean that’s older than Boston, older than providence,” he said.
Preservation Buffalo Niagara works to help owners of historic buildings to acquire tax credits and recommend a plan for preservation.
“In our work we’re not responsible for going out and actually purchasing properties and renovating them,” said Wilson, “We provide technical services to individuals that do. ”
“We make communities eligible to be able to receive some type of tax incentive,” he said. According to Wilson and Yots renovation is not possible without some type of incentive to the property owner.
“With the rents being as low as they are, it doesn’t justify it [a preservation project] economically without some type of incentive for a large investment,” said Wilson. This is done often times through a tax credit.
“Basically, almost everything qualifies,” he said, “You have to spend at least $5000 and you can get 20% back on almost anything you do related to the building.”
President of Preservation Studios, Jason Yots takes a similar approach to find funding for historic preservation.
“When someone comes to us with a building we help them determine whether it’s eligible for tax credits,” said Jason Yots, “meaning whether it’s eligible for listing in the national registry of historic places and if it is we help them with that nomination.”
“We don’t reject too many,” he said, “We probably get I’d say anywhere from 3 to 10 inquiries in a month, and of those 40- 80 opportunities, maybe 20 or 10 opportunities.” Preservation Studios has worked to help plan the preservation of the Williamsville Water Mill and nominate the Lord Amherst Motel to the National Registry of Historic Sites.
“The only meaningful way that I have found to be able to consistently return buildings to investment status is the historic tax credit,” said Yots. Preservation Studios looks for buildings that are at least 50 years old and have some historical significance. Potential clients call Preservation Studios and a project manager investigates the buildings history using a simple internet search.
“So someone who is thinking about getting into this: they’re first inquiry would be is my building old enough?,” Jason Yots said, “If it is old enough, is it significant enough? And if so, do I have a project here, or just an idea?”
“If it seems like something we want to encourage the person to do,” he said, “meaning it’s not a goose-chase, we’ll kind of let them know what it would take.” According to Jason Yots, typically, the buildings Preservation Studios cannot help fall into three categories:
1. The building qualifies but owner is too restricted by historic building restrictions.
2. The buildings that don’t quality because of deterioration or lack of significance.
3. The real estate deals that simply fall apart because the developer lets the project go.
Historical Architects: Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration and Reconstruction
After a building has acquired the proper funding a historical architect is usually contracted to create a plan for the construction and preservation of the building. The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village museum’s Curator, Jessica Johnson knows all about building preservation. The museum is home to over ten historically preserved buildings housed in an outdoor village.
“One important part of preserving historic structures is making a document called an HSR-- Historic Structures Report,” said Johnson, “An Architectural historian is usually the best person to do that.”
Andrea Rebeck is a preservation architect who has made a career out of restoring historic buildings.
“Once folks are aware that a building must be saved and have raised the money to do it, the architect is brought in to work on it,” Rebeck explained of her work.
“Those of us in the profession of historic preservation accept the four definitions of treatments for historic properties established by the National Park Service: Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration and Reconstruction,” she said.
According to Rebeck there are ten steps she follows when restoring a building:
1. Establishing Goals with the property’s owner.
2. Review and research building’s history.
3. Document and photograph the historical site. Begin the earliest stages of a draft.
4. The architect and owner decide what historic tax credits to accept. While tax credits can seem wonderful on paper Rebeck warned, “These funding sources have stringent requirements that impact the program and the design.” In order to receive credit often the property owner is limited on can be modified within the building.
5. After establishing what can and cannot be modified Rebeck begins drafting schematic design plans. She explained she does this to, “help the client visualize the design.”
6. The client will choose one plan that Rebeck will further elaborate on.
7. With the approval of the client Rebeck finalizes her design plans by creating a more detailed construction plan. During this set Rebeck also drafts contracts for construction companies.
8. During this step the property owner settles upon a contract with a construction company. Just like an ordinary construction project, bidding and negotiations are used to keep the price at its lowest possible point.
9. During this next step the either the property owner or the architect will administer the construction contract. This is usually a difficult time for the project and a step that the architect might not even be involved in.
“Not all building owners hire the architect to do this, though they should,” said Rebeck.
“This is the most critical stage of the process,” she said, “and the architect is the one with the expertise and the most familiarity with the historic building to manage this part of the process.” During this step contractors will begin the actual construction on the historic building and will work with the property owners and if possible the architect to achieve the desired goal.
10. At the end of this process the architect will check over the construction company’s work. Rebeck said, “When the construction work is finished, [I] certify to the building owner that it is complete and OK to pay the contractor in full.”
When a Building Can not be Saved
Despite all the good intentions in the world sometimes a historic preservation project just doesn’t pan out. A particular project close to Williamsville is the Reist Mill.
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| Images Copyright and Courtesy of the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village |
“It was a really significant structure in Amherst,” explained Jessica Johnson, “the earliest part was dating to the 1860s.” A committee was started to oversee the preservation of the historic mill just a few blocks away from the Williamsville Water Mill. All seemed well until tragedy struck.
“The historic preservation commission was working on the Reist Mill,” said Johnson, “to get it preserved and figure out different possibilities for it – and then it burned.”
The building was completely burned to the ground on July 23, 2008. Although a complete investigation was never completed it has been speculated that the fire was likely a case of arson as the building did not have electricity. David F. Sherman, managing editor of the Amherst Bee reported that, “The last remaining building of a prosperous 19th century Williamsville milling company was destroyed by a suspicious fire early Monday morning.”
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| Images Copyright and Courtesy of the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village |
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| Images Copyright and Courtesy of the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village |
“We had a similar situation here in Buffalo with the old Wollenberg Grain elevator –which was I think the last remaining wooden grain elevator,” explained Jason Yots, “I believe it was owned by the city and fell into disrepair and eventually it was burned down I believe they determined it was arson or vandalism.”
Securing Buildings from Vandals and Bulldozers
While the tragedies at the Reist mill and Wollenberg Grain elevator were a great loss to the community there are many precautions property owners can to protect their buildings.
“In real estate it’s called mothballing,” said Jason Wilson, “Mothballing is to just fix the immediate concerns and make sure that [the building] it’s water and weather tight and then it can just sit there and wait for a use.” This process is especially hard for government agencies to comply with.
“I mean securing the property is always the biggest piece and that’s what we’re trying to really advocate for with the city,” Wilson said, “I mean the city owns all these properties and ideally they’d like to sell them. But in the meantime they’re not securing them and what happens is people get in there and they hurt themselves or they set fires.” In addition to vandals our harsh Buffalo weather can wreak havoc on a building.
“Or really, what happens,” he said, “the majority of the time is that the weather and the elements get to the properties.”
Jason Wilson recommends that building owners shut off utilities, especially water, and sequre the roof as best as possible.
Andrea Rebeck, who visited the Reist Mill, felt that the Village should have took more precautions against vandals even if it meant keeping electricity on.
“For starters,” she said, “keeping the building secure so that no unauthorized people could enter it would have helped. Keeping power to it would have helped, too, so it could be lit at night, or have motion-activated lights that would have alerted neighbors that someone was prowling around.”
But what can a historic property owner do when a powerful organization such as a development company or a growing hospital is threatening their building?
“its preferred if you can to keep the buildings in their original location, but if they’re under imminent threat or will possibly be demolished if it’s a significant building or important to the community in some way buildings are often moved,” said Jessica Johnson.
“That’s the case of our buildings,” she added. The Buffalo Niagara Heritage Museum houses several historically preserved buildings moved from all over Amherst.
“Our Hoover house came from Dodge road,” she said. Some of the suburban development companies whose land development threatened the buildings actually funded moving the buildings to the museum.
Buildings were jacked up and placed on high beams which were attached to wheels and driven to a new location.
“One of the major costs of moving is the electric lines,” said Johnson, “You have to pay the electric company to hoist the lines up or actually drop them over the height of a building.”
Public Education
For Tom Yots and Jason Wilson another important but often overlooked aspect of historic preservation is the opportunity to educate the community. Yots, who spent many years as high school teacher before becoming an architect finds this aspect extremely important.
“We are out there to advocate for historic preservation,” said Tom Yots, “the development advising that we do is because of the advocacy and the education.” According to Yots a community that is uneducated about the historic sites in their area will do little to aid in their protection. This is a problem Preservation Buffalo Niagara is working to correct.
“We also do a lot of advocacy and education,” said Jason Wilson, “A lot of our education is through our Buffalo Tours program.” The program includes 16 different tours around Buffalo’s historic districts and sites. The tours are created using 150 volunteers and average around 1000 attendees a month. According to Tom Yots community education helps the community to appreciate the historic sites in their own neighborhoods.
Communities are not always as open to preservation as Buffalo. As a town historian in Niagara Falls, Yots learned this the hard way when he tried to protect the home of a 92 year-old woman.
“This 92 year-old woman put her house on to the registry to protect it because it was next door to memorial medical center,” said Tom Yots, “and she knew they wanted it and wanted to tear it down – and it was historic it was designed by a famous architect.” The home was designed by architect Will Cannon who would later found the internationally recognized Cannon Design company. Yots was able to get the home on the Registry of Historic Sites.
“Eventually she went into a nursing home and the hospital bought it,” said Yots, “We were fighting with them because they were planning on demolishing it. We even involved the Federal Government in it. We thought we were going great and then one day I got a phone call: ‘The house is being demolished, they just went in and tore it down.’”
Yots is very frank about the project’s failure. He said sadly,: “I’m not even sure that we benefited at all from that one because nobody is upset except us and a handful of preservation people.”
“So, we lost and it was heart breaking,” he added, “But you don’t always win them.”
