Reimagining Black Futures

Co-Director of the Coles House Project
The Coles House Project preserves and stewards the Coles House and Studio. We uplift and nurture Robert Traynham Coles’ legacy of advocacy and architecture through public programming, community driven design, and architecture and planning. We intend for our work to model and inspire design and conservation that brings investment, health and well-being, and justice to Buffalo’s East Side.

The East Side Neighborhood Transformation Project: Improving Health Outcomes in the Upper Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood
Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr., Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, founding director of the UB Center for Urban Studies, and associate director of the UB Community Health Equity Research Institute. His research focuses on the interplay of racial capitalism, metropolitan city-building, and Black neighborhood underdevelopment. The East Side Neighborhood Transformation Demonstration Project theorizes that poor health outcomes and underdeveloped Black neighborhoods are inseparable, creating a cycle of premature death, exploitation, and inequity. We aim to break this cycle by improving health and socioeconomic outcomes on Buffalo’s East Side by transforming underdeveloped neighborhoods into healthy, thriving, and joyful communities. This task requires building a new model of Black neighborhoods: one that controls market dynamics. This presentation explores the challenges we have faced, are currently confronting, and anticipate in our mission to build and implement this transformative model.

Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Jin Young Song is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University at Buffalo and a registered architect in the state of New York. His research focuses on architectural design, with an emphasis on sustainable building envelopes and the socio-cultural performance of building façades. In collaboration with Douglass Alligood, Song has been working on the 5/14 Memorial project. This presentation will highlight the memorial’s design mechanisms, addressing key challenges and principles while exploring the transformative power of design—its unique ability to elevate awareness, mobilize communities, stimulate intellect, and inspire meaningful action. By working closely with families, community members, and the 5/14 Memorial Commission, the project seeks to create an enduring platform for social justice, healing, and remembrance—not only for the present but for audiences across the nation and future generations.