O, boy, what an amazing door! The Larkin O Building, constructed in 1907 as one of multiple additions to the sprawling Larkin factory complex, contains an odd second-story door that appears more like one that would have opened out onto a ground-level sidewalk.

It’s not only an appearance. The door did once face onto a street – the Van Rensselaer Street viaduct, in fact. Until a couple decades ago, this section of Van Rensselaer Street from Roseville to Seneca streets was an elevated viaduct allowing the passage of trains underneath, along the tracks of the Erie Railroad that have since been removed.

Huge cargo trains once traveled under the shadow of the viaduct directly into the Larkin Terminal Warehouse, where they would efficiently load and offload products to and from interior freight elevators without worry of exposure to the elements – an ingenious innovation of Machine Age warehouse engineering that dramatically sped the pace of Larkin’s shipping operations.

At the Larkin Terminal Warehouse, in fact, when Graphic Controls purchased the building in 1967, the pedestrian entrance at Van Rensselaer Street was not at the first story but on the second. Ditto at Larkin Building O, whose “ground-level” door several feet in the air is fascinating evidence of rail infrastucture in the district that has long since disappeared.

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Mayor Byron Brown today unveiled an effort to overhaul Buffalo’s antiquated zoning code, an initiative that may prove particularly relevant to future development efforts in the Hydraulics. Brian Reilly, the Mayor’s Commissioner of Economic Development, announced the City’s plans in an editorial in today’s Buffalo News.

Buffalo’s zoning ordinance was last updated in 1951, the year Harry Truman declared an official end to the wars with Japan and Germany, Judie Garland was singing in concerts at New York’s Palace Theatre, the UNIVAC 1 was first manufactured by Remington Rand, and the television show I Love Lucy debuted on CBS. The year Buffalo’s zoning code was written is one in which the American cultural ethos favored a future destined for cars, highways, and suburban expansion, and where the future no longer had room for the tightly-knit, walkable character of traditional neighborhoods.

Take Seneca Street (above), as an example. It’s a place that historically has housed a mix of many uses – theaters, photography studios, canvas manufacturers, diners, carriage factories, residential apartments, print shops, saloons, candy stores… you name it. It’s also a street whose building forms traditionally followed a few simple rules of design: buildings front the sidewalk, ground floors are permeable, parking is placed at the sides, the rear, or on the street. Instead of reinforcing historic streetscapes, the 1951 zoning code, if implemented as written, essentially calls for the following physical vision for Seneca Street:

Most of the Hydraulics is governed by a blanket M1 (Light Manufacturing) zoning category, which, as it happens, addresses specific permitted uses such as coal trestles, livery stables, and “carnival, circus or similar transient amusement enterprises.” The regulations are clearly a throwback to a bygone era. Meanwhile, the M1 designation does not sufficiently address important issues of urban design that are critical in strengthening the walkability and street life of a neighborhood, or of struggling, traditionally mixed-use districts like Seneca Street.
If development were to follow the existing zoning code accurately, Seneca Street over time would adopt the appearance of a low-value, suburban industrial park with austere buildings set back behind deep parking lots (like the example above), an outcome that is completely permissible and encouraged under M1. Existing development trajectories in the neighborhood, however, anticipate a better outcome. The Hydraulics, and much of Buffalo, is slated for planned development that aims to resurrect walkable neighborhoods, but is not yet assisted by a code that strengthens walkability. Mayor Brown is out to change that.

Instead of the uninspired future the 1951 zoning code currently calls for in the Hydraulics, imagine something like the vision crafted for a similar industrial district in Peoria, Illinois, following a new form-based code adopted in the neighborhood:

The mayor is now taking the extraordinary step of setting Buffalo on a path to 21st century urban development that embraces mixed uses, walkability, and quality urban design. A simple, intuitive form-based code, the mayor’s economic development commissioner now argues, would demystify land use regulation, thereby helping attract new investment and empowering the community to codify an achievable vision for future development. It’s good news for the Hydraulics, and it’s good news for all of Buffalo.

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