BUFFALO (WBEN) - The Our Outer Harbor Coalition submitted a Local Landmark nomination for the Ford Terminal Building on Fuhrmann Boulevard.
This submission for the local landmark nomination is the coalition's way of saying that it wants the building to be a part of the future of the outer harbor.
"Right now this building is publicly owned by the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation, so the local land marking effort will encourage them to make sure that they're using the building and incorporating it into their future plans," said Jessie Fisher, who serves as executive director of Preserve Buffalo Niagara. "Most of the incentives and regulations that would be in place for a local landmark would really only happen if this building were ever to change hands into private ownership."
Fisher also discussed some of the hopes for the building and surrounding area.
"We think it has a great opportunity to be sort of a festival marketplace like other cities have done on their waterfronts," she said.
The Our Outer Harbor Coalition submitted a Local Landmark nomination for the Ford Terminal Building on Fuhrmann Boulevard. This is the coalition's way of saying that it wants this building to be a part of future plans at the Outer Harbor. pic.twitter.com/EXIsris4w0
— WBEN NewsRadio 930AM (@NewsRadio930) January 18, 2019Buffalo Common Councilman Chris Scanlon argues that it's important to keep the history and culture of the city in tact as Buffalo moves forward, and preserving buildings with historical significance is a great way to doing that.
"Buffalo's rich industrial history is really part of what drove this city's rise to prominence in the 19th and 20th Centuries," said Scanlon. "Preserving buildings like this and it's story, and others like it, in no small part continue to drive the renaissance that we're experiencing now in the 21st Century."
Assemblyman Sean Ryan agrees with Scanlon, and he says that Buffalo can look at other places around the country as examples of how to preserve history, while also modernizing the look and use to fit the time.
"We set ourselves apart as a city, apart from other mid-sized cities because of our rich architectural past," said Ryan. "Sometimes, it was based on a residential building, sometimes commercial, and in this case, it's an industrial building. If you go down to Pittsburgh and see what they've done in their Warehouse District, how they've used that rich past to bring them into the modern future, I'm really excited to see what could happen with Terminal A and the richness it's going to add to our waterfront."
