BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — College graduate students are part of an effort to give new life to a largely dormant part of Buffalo, Central Terminal. Trains have not run through the terminal for more than 40 years.
New York State is committing more than $60 million towards its future, but it is the land surrounding Central Terminal that has not received a lot of attention.
"It's a fascinating area," Conrad Kickert, assistant professor with University at Buffalo's Department of Architecture, said.
Kickert, and Matthew Roland, assistant dean of real estate and clinical assistant professor with UB's Department of Urban and Regional Planning, said the stretch of Central Terminal and what surrounds it, has been a major focus for their graduate students in the Architecture and Planning School.
"So that's why we picked up the site adjacent to the terminal away from all the noise to have a look at what could happen to a site like that," Kickert said.
Throughout the semester, Michael Muran, an architecture student, and Alexa Sass, a real estate student, alongside their classmates, broke up into teams and came up with plans of how to reimagine the Central Terminal area to change it from vacant buildings, to a space for everyone.
The goal of all of this?
"Create a project that would be able to help out the people in the community and also just provide things that are desperately needed which is a lot of people need better jobs, better housing, and just a better state of living in general," Muran said.
"And then we also incorporated a ton of sustainability features as well as green space, so these residents can come out and really connect with each other within the community," Sass added.
There was one solution many of them focused on - affordable housing.
"The Broadway-Fillmore area in general has like a very rich culture, so we wanted to really highlight and bring it back to the community and make it known to everybody," Muran said.
Students presented the plans to City of Buffalo planners on Wednesday, with the hope that one day it can become a reality.
"Our hope is that it fosters some ideas for what the Central Terminal and East Side development might occur," Roland said.
"So we're trying to give everyone the opportunity and really improve everyone's life at smaller scales and even to the largest scale of architecture," Muran added.
