Buffalo's vision for a waterfront park

Across half a century, faculty and students of the School of Architecture and Planning have engaged in hundreds of acts of planning, design, and making, a collaborative endeavor with our community to shape the future of Buffalo. Now it has established the community vision for the next big step in the ongoing construction of Buffalo – the transformation of a waterfront park from a hard, flat stretch of grass to an enchanting landscape at the eastern tip of Lake Erie. 

During the summer of 2018, 22 focus group members, 1,164 community members, and a team of local youth contributed their perspectives and ideas to envision the future of LaSalle Park.

The collaborative civic work of creating the park has been driven by values defined through public engagement, informed by precedent and analysis of existing conditions, and inspired by an elevation of expectations for the user experience. The work builds on the city's legacy of world-class urban design, and draws from Buffalo's collective vision for its future as represnted in an official planning framework for its downtown, waterfront, parks, and regional economy.

Imagine LaSalle has been an intensive and ambitious civic effort. The project involves the university, city government, and a major donor, but also park user groups, neighbors, advocacy organizations, and federal and state agencies. Over two-plus years, a team from the UB Regional Institute hosted community workshops, conducted survey research in seven languages, and organized design charrettes with youth. They toured a focus group of neighborhood ambassadors through 21 of the nation’s best urban parks.

That chorus of voices was then synthesized into a community vision report outlining core design principles for the park, from the technical (get smart about parking) to the cultural (strengthen neighborhood connections) to the aesthetic (create a ‘great lawn’ for recreation and events). The report has served as a guiding force for the project, directly informing MVVA’s conceptual designs for the park.

The park will be linked to a wider system of parks and trails, served by systems of maintenance and operations, and nourished by structures of governance that mobilize community support. Among the park’s signature features are a berm to block noise from the I-190, an inviting new bridge to the neighborhood across the interstate, a sledding hill and meadow, reinvigorated flora including 2,500 new trees, new ways to meet the water, a magical new playground for children, and connections to surrounding parks and trails.