Buffalo and the Artspace project will be getting national TV exposure in January on Home & Garden Television.
A network production crew set up Thursday Buffalo and the Artspace project will be getting national TV exposure in January on Home & Garden Television.
A network production crew set up Thursday on the fifth floor of the former Buffalo Electric Vehicle Company Building, 1219 Main St., where Mayor Byron W. Brown and others were asked to talk about Artspace. The footage - to be edited to 20- and 30- second spots - is for the Knoxville, Tenn.- based network's public affairs campaign,
HGTV's Restore America, done in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic
Preservation. The mayor touted Buffalo's historic architecture and said the Artspace project - which will provide low-cost living and work space to area artists - will add to economic development projects occurring in or near downtown. "There is tremendous excitement for this project," said Brown, who sat in a corner surrounded by galvanized steel frames, not far from an open window where a pigeon entered just out of camera range.
"Our focus is to develop a 24/7 live-work environment in downtown Buffalo," he said. Brown said that word of the project already was enticing developers to inquire about Buffalo, but that its importance went beyond dollars and cents. "[Artspace's] ability to create art and beauty is very inspiring," Brown told senior producer Gary Beaton.
Afterward, Brown said being on HGTV was a great opportunity to draw national attention to Buffalo's architectural treasures and current projects. Minneapolis-based Artspace Projects, which is redeveloping the space with Belmont Shelter Corp. of Buffalo, has been awarded a $50,000 grant from HGTV for the restoration of the building, once part of an automobile factory that opened in 1911.
The 86,000-square-foot loft building, with its wide-open floor plan and large windows, is being
transformed into 36 low-income residential apartment units for local artists. An additional 24
new units will be built behind the building. The new property will be known as Buffalo Artists
Lofts. There also will be commercial space on the first floor, along with space suitable for art-related businesses and organizations.
The five-story midtown site was entered onto the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
Construction began in May and is expected to be completed in July 2007.
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