Buffalo, New York: Amherst / Audubon New Community (56K back to the 1970s) - Cyburbia Forums

Dan · 2005-04-18, 11:25 PM

The Town of Amherst, Buffalo's largest suburb, is home to about 120,000 residents sprawled across 53 square miles. Thus, a few photos can't capture the character of the entire town; it has to be absorbed neighborhood by neighborhood.

First, a bit of mythbusting.

Amherst is wealthy. FALSE. The median household income of Amherst in 2000 ($55,427) is actually below that of many large suburbs thought of as middle-class; Mentor, Ohio ($57,230), Westminster, Colorado ($56,323), and Richardson, Texas ($62,392), to name a few.

Amherst does have more elite high-end neighborhoods and subdivisions than other Buffalo suburbs. However, it's not exclusively upper-middle-class like some suburbs it's often compared to -- Beachwood and Solon, Ohio, near Cleveland; and Pittsford and Perinton, New York, ourside of Rochester. Amherst has a large student population, many retirees on a fixed income (most paid off the mortgage of their large houses, so they can still afford to remain), many apartment complexes, some middle-class neighborhoods and subdivisions, and even a struggling working-class neighborhood; the Sweet Home Road area south of Sheridan Drive.

Up until the 1950s, Amherst was a predominantly middle-income community. There were areas like Snyder and LeBrun Road, but those were the exception; not the rule. Drive along the old "long roads" in upscale East Amherst -- Smith, Heim, Dodge, and others -- and most of the homes you'll see will be average, medium-sized 1950s-era ranches and Cape Cods. Often you won't see the McMansions unless you turn off a long road into a subdivision.

Amherst is whiter than a bleached polar bear in a blizzard. FALSE. Amherst has suburban Buffalo's largest African-American community; 3.9% of the town population is black. (No, they're not all living in the Allenhurst Apartments.) About one out of every 20 Amherst residents is Asian. That doesn't include those from the subcontinent; Amherst is the center of Buffalo's growing Indian community. 60% of Erie County's 25,000 Jews live in Amherst.

Amherst has plenty of hoity-toity commercial districts. FALSE. Outside of the Village of Williamsville, and parts of Snyder, most commercial development in the town consists of rather generic strip plazas, and one- and two-story professional and medical office buildings. Boulevard Mall is thriving, but the selection of stores there isn't particularly upscale; JC Penny, Sears, and Kaufmann's are the major anchors. There are no lifestyle centers in the town; no Cheesecake Factory, no Restoration Hardware, no P.F. Chang's. Amherst has no architectural regulations, so commercial development is often wretched-looking compared to what is found in communities with stricter design controls. At least sign clutter isn't a problem.

Now, let's go to the heart of Amherst; Audubon New Community. Audubon was built in the 1970s by the New York Urban Development Corporation, intended to house workers and academic staff from the new University at Buffalo North Campus. Audubon was intended to be a mixed-income community from the start; the home to professors and janitors, scientists and cafeteria workers. Because Audubon has moderate income residents and some subsidized housing, it is is sometimes considered a "slum" by other Amherst residents.

Like UB North, Audubon New Community never grew as large as it was planned to be. The last station of the Metro Rail "Blue Line" was planned for Audubon New Community; today, Metro Rail's northernmost station is about five miles south of Audubon. Audubon Parkway, the main street of the community, was supposed to extend all the way to Ellicott Creek Road; today it ends in a barrier just north of I-990.

The one thing most notice when they visit Audubon New Community is the architectural style of the housing. The vertical stained slats and odd angles are representative of what is known as "shed style" architecture. Shed style architecture is very common in the Pacific Northwest, but quite rare in the Northeast. The shed influence extended outside of Audubon; there are a few other small subdivisions filled with shed-style houses in the town.

Just for comparison, here's some typical new housing in Amherst.

Now, let's look at Audubon. (Note the sidewalks; they're either non-existent, or surfaced in asphalt and lacking tree lawns; very unusual for the Buffalo area. Pedestrian paths run between and behind houses. There are no fenced yards anywhere in Audubon.)

Most multi-family housing is designed in the same style.

There are some non-shed style houses in Audubon, but they're the exception.

Commercial areas are concentrated along Audubon Parkway, west of the residential areas. There are no retail uses in Audubon.

The end, if you're not good.

Larger images can be found at http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery .

steel · 2005-04-18, 11:50 PM

Those wood slatted style houses are inspired by the architecture and planning of Sea Ranch near San Francisco in California. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...lr%3D%26sa%3DG That style of architecture was popular in the 70's and was used by several big time architects of the time particularly in the design of Sea Ranch. Sea Ranch was kind of the New Urbanism of its time. the thought was to build very naturally with natural weathering materials and attention to environmental elements such as sun angles. Hence in Amherst you get the name Audobon New Community. of course the Amherst version is a cheap developer's knock off while Sea Ranch was built mostly by Rich people who hired their own world renound architects. Not too much different than what you see between Sea Side and the all to common cheap knock off all over the place.

I would be willing to bet that those Sea Ranch style houses fetch the lowest price in the subdivision since they reek of another era and do not fit today's concept of suburban luxury not to mention that the garages only fit 2 cars! can you imagine having to park 2 of your cars outside? Where do you put the jet skis?

Luca · 2005-04-19, 02:41 AM

what an ugly, soulless place. I spent 10 years in the US and loved it but I still can't understand why people would WANT to live in suburbs like that.

BKM · 2005-04-19, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by steel

Those wood slatted style houses are inspired by the architecture and planning of Sea Ranch near San Francisco in California. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...lr%3D%26sa%3DG That style of architecture was popular in the 70's and was used by several big time architects of the time particularly in the design of Sea Ranch. Sea Ranch was kind of the New Urbanism of its time. the thought was to build very naturally with natural weathering materials and attention to environmental elements such as sun angles. Hence in Amherst you get the name Audobon New Community. of course the Amherst version is a cheap developer's knock off while Sea Ranch was built mostly by Rich people who hired their own world renound architects. Not too much different than what you see between Sea Side and the all to common cheap knock off all over the place.

I would be willing to bet that those Sea Ranch style houses fetch the lowest price in the subdivision since they reek of another era and do not fit today's concept of suburban luxury not to mention that the garages only fit 2 cars! can you imagine having to park 2 of your cars outside? Where do you put the jet skis?

Heck, most people fill their garages with junk and park all their cars on the driveway, anyway. At least Amherst is not filled with greasy industrial drilling rigs and battered panel vans like the "Neighborhood Next Door (tm)" (AIB Dan's Town Next Door)

steel · 2005-04-19, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BKM

Heck, most people fill their garages with junk and park all their cars on the driveway, anyway. At least Amherst is not filled with greasy industrial drilling rigs and battered panel vans like the "Neighborhood Next Door (tm)" (AIB Dan's Town Next Door)

I also noticed that Audobon has asphalt driveways instead of concrete. Well that is just a disgrace.

I have heard of towns that do not allow cars to be parked in the driveway even though the driveway is as big as some city lots. It is funny that all these "Republican" towns have more government interference in youe life that the so called "Big Government Liberal Cities"

Trinity Moses · 2005-04-19, 05:36 PM

The "Sea Ranch Style" was everywhere in the early to mid 70s. It was really popular. It also had of had this "back to the land" "solar panles" connotation, too....

Actually this does not look too bad of a development...the parts with the woodsy-shedsy houses in the forest. One wonders if the interiors have nice high "cathederal ceilings" and such....

The office park is nice too...bland, but it could be worse....

BKM · 2005-04-19, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Luca

what an ugly, soulless place. I spent 10 years in the US and loved it but I still can't understand why people would WANT to live in suburbs like that.

For probably 75%-90% of the American population, this is the dream. And, we are exporting it everywhere! (See the new McMansion suburbs of China) (Of course, it was originally the "British Dream." We just made it cheaper, more efficient, and blander than your's

)

thestip · 2005-04-19, 10:05 PM

Funny, I've never made a point of heading up into that section of town, usually I have stuck to the main Roads, I-290, Maple, Sheridan. Anything near the University I generally try to avoid like the plague. Then again I generally try to avoid Amherst like the plague too....

j/k I do have to work there... I might have to take a ride up there though one of these days to check it out, I've always wondered what the state's plans were for that area in collaboration with where Metrorail was supposed to go.

Rumpy Tunanator · 2005-04-19, 10:06 PM

It still is Crapherst to me

jsk1983 · 2005-04-19, 10:39 PM

In one of the town history books for Amherst that has been published I remember reading of a development that has planned in the 1920s for an area bordered by Sheridan, Millersport, North Forest. I'm thinking it had Audubon in the name. It of course was never built as the depression and the war put an end to large scale projects. I believe it was suppossed to be "mixed use" and included single family homes, high rises, retail, etc.

steel · 2005-04-19, 11:41 PM

The Amherst concept of civic space and expression of pride

The City of Buffalo concept of civic space and expression of pride

image by Buffcity at SSC

Why do we treasure the vacuos nature of our burbs while trashing our true treasures?

BKM · 2005-04-19, 11:43 PM

Heck, steel. That looks amazingly like my town's "Civic Center"

jsk1983 · 2005-04-20, 12:58 AM

The actual Amherst town hall is housed in a 1960s era colonial style building in the "heart" of the historic village of Williamsville. Its nothing special but its a lot better than the Audubon town center.

UpstateNYRox · 2005-04-20, 11:10 AM

On a side note, homes in Audubon as well as many nearby Amherst neighborhoods are in the middle of an area of soft clay soil that has caused foundations of houses to chrack and/or shift that has rendered many of these houses unsellable and have required costly repairs by homeowners (tens of thousands of dollars) to fix. Since this widespread problem made local new headlines, new housing in the town of Amherst are now required to be built with reinforced foundations.

drucee · 2005-04-20, 01:58 PM

Is this the reason for the "Swampherst" nickname?

jsk1983 · 2005-04-20, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by drucee

Is this the reason for the "Swampherst" nickname?

The two are related. Much of Amherst is built on former swamp land which has been drained into small lakes and ponds. Any "lake" in Amherst is manmade and is the result of the draining of the swamps. Drive around many of the upscale subdivisions and the properties often back up to swamp land or at least seasonal wetlands. As a result the town has a massive mosquito reduction program in the summer. It should be noted that the northern two thirds of the town were underwater during the last ice age, the lake was known as lake Tonawanda.

BKM · 2005-04-20, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jsk1983

The two are related. Much of Amherst is built on former swamp land which has been drained into small lakes and ponds. Any "lake" in Amherst is manmade and is the result of the draining of the swamps. Drive around many of the upscale subdivisions and the properties often back up to swamp land or at least seasonal wetlands. As a result the town has a massive mosquito reduction program in the summer. It should be noted that the northern two thirds of the town were underwater during the last ice age, the lake was known as lake Tonawanda.

Is the local Mosquito Abatement District headquarters housed in an appropriate edifice befitting its importance?

steel · 2005-04-20, 06:44 PM

Dan what are the names of the streets in Audobon? Do they have some nature related theme? I know some people that live on Willow Brooke (with an e) Lane. No willows, no brook, unless you count the runoff to the detention pond area.

UpstateNYRox · 2005-04-20, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by steel

Dan what are the names of the streets in Audobon? Do they have some nature related theme? I know some people that live on Willow Brooke (with an e) Lane. No willows, no brook, unless you count the runoff to the detention pond area.

Looking at the Google map of the Audubon neighborhood, many of the streets have bird themed names like Robin Rd, Hummingbird Ln, Mallard Ct, etc.

2005-04-18, 11:25 PM	#1
Dan Cyburbia Administrator Registered: Mar 1996 Location: Buffalo, New York Posts: 9,847 Blog entries: 3	Buffalo, New York: Amherst / Audubon New Community (56K back to the 1970s) The Town of Amherst, Buffalo's largest suburb, is home to about 120,000 residents sprawled across 53 square miles. Thus, a few photos can't capture the character of the entire town; it has to be absorbed neighborhood by neighborhood. First, a bit of mythbusting. Amherst is wealthy. FALSE. The median household income of Amherst in 2000 ($55,427) is actually below that of many large suburbs thought of as middle-class; Mentor, Ohio ($57,230), Westminster, Colorado ($56,323), and Richardson, Texas ($62,392), to name a few. Amherst does have more elite high-end neighborhoods and subdivisions than other Buffalo suburbs. However, it's not exclusively upper-middle-class like some suburbs it's often compared to -- Beachwood and Solon, Ohio, near Cleveland; and Pittsford and Perinton, New York, ourside of Rochester. Amherst has a large student population, many retirees on a fixed income (most paid off the mortgage of their large houses, so they can still afford to remain), many apartment complexes, some middle-class neighborhoods and subdivisions, and even a struggling working-class neighborhood; the Sweet Home Road area south of Sheridan Drive. Up until the 1950s, Amherst was a predominantly middle-income community. There were areas like Snyder and LeBrun Road, but those were the exception; not the rule. Drive along the old "long roads" in upscale East Amherst -- Smith, Heim, Dodge, and others -- and most of the homes you'll see will be average, medium-sized 1950s-era ranches and Cape Cods. Often you won't see the McMansions unless you turn off a long road into a subdivision. Amherst is whiter than a bleached polar bear in a blizzard. FALSE. Amherst has suburban Buffalo's largest African-American community; 3.9% of the town population is black. (No, they're not all living in the Allenhurst Apartments.) About one out of every 20 Amherst residents is Asian. That doesn't include those from the subcontinent; Amherst is the center of Buffalo's growing Indian community. 60% of Erie County's 25,000 Jews live in Amherst. Amherst has plenty of hoity-toity commercial districts. FALSE. Outside of the Village of Williamsville, and parts of Snyder, most commercial development in the town consists of rather generic strip plazas, and one- and two-story professional and medical office buildings. Boulevard Mall is thriving, but the selection of stores there isn't particularly upscale; JC Penny, Sears, and Kaufmann's are the major anchors. There are no lifestyle centers in the town; no Cheesecake Factory, no Restoration Hardware, no P.F. Chang's. Amherst has no architectural regulations, so commercial development is often wretched-looking compared to what is found in communities with stricter design controls. At least sign clutter isn't a problem. Now, let's go to the heart of Amherst; Audubon New Community. Audubon was built in the 1970s by the New York Urban Development Corporation, intended to house workers and academic staff from the new University at Buffalo North Campus. Audubon was intended to be a mixed-income community from the start; the home to professors and janitors, scientists and cafeteria workers. Because Audubon has moderate income residents and some subsidized housing, it is is sometimes considered a "slum" by other Amherst residents. Like UB North, Audubon New Community never grew as large as it was planned to be. The last station of the Metro Rail "Blue Line" was planned for Audubon New Community; today, Metro Rail's northernmost station is about five miles south of Audubon. Audubon Parkway, the main street of the community, was supposed to extend all the way to Ellicott Creek Road; today it ends in a barrier just north of I-990. The one thing most notice when they visit Audubon New Community is the architectural style of the housing. The vertical stained slats and odd angles are representative of what is known as "shed style" architecture. Shed style architecture is very common in the Pacific Northwest, but quite rare in the Northeast. The shed influence extended outside of Audubon; there are a few other small subdivisions filled with shed-style houses in the town. Just for comparison, here's some typical new housing in Amherst. Now, let's look at Audubon. (Note the sidewalks; they're either non-existent, or surfaced in asphalt and lacking tree lawns; very unusual for the Buffalo area. Pedestrian paths run between and behind houses. There are no fenced yards anywhere in Audubon.) Most multi-family housing is designed in the same style. There are some non-shed style houses in Audubon, but they're the exception. Commercial areas are concentrated along Audubon Parkway, west of the residential areas. There are no retail uses in Audubon. The end, if you're not good. Larger images can be found at http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery . __________________ Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell. -- Edward Abbey

2005-04-19, 02:41 AM	#3
Luca Cyburbian Registered: Mar 2005 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,108	jeez what an ugly, soulless place. I spent 10 years in the US and loved it but I still can't understand why people would WANT to live in suburbs like that. __________________ Life and death of great pattern languages

2005-04-19, 10:05 PM	#8
thestip Cyburbian Registered: Apr 2004 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 113	Funny, I've never made a point of heading up into that section of town, usually I have stuck to the main Roads, I-290, Maple, Sheridan. Anything near the University I generally try to avoid like the plague. Then again I generally try to avoid Amherst like the plague too.... j/k I do have to work there... I might have to take a ride up there though one of these days to check it out, I've always wondered what the state's plans were for that area in collaboration with where Metrorail was supposed to go. __________________ 'Planning Rockstar in training';-)

2005-04-19, 10:06 PM	#9
Rumpy Tunanator Cyburbian Registered: Dec 2003 Location: Intervention Posts: 4,442	It still is Crapherst to me __________________ A guy once told me, "Do not have any attachments, do not have anything in your life you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner." Neil McCauley (Robert DeNiro): Heat 1995

2005-04-19, 11:43 PM	#12
BKM Cyburbian Registered: Oct 2001 Location: Solano County, California Posts: 6,469	Heck, steel. That looks amazingly like my town's "Civic Center" __________________ The war on drugs seems like a small thing, but actually it was a huge opening, created by the American government, to stealthily destroy your rights. It has done a crackerjack job. In California, poor Ed Rosenthal is again being prosecuted by Federal terrorists, otherwise known as the Drug Enforcement Agency. Free Ed Rosenthal. Arrest instead William Bennet (roger gathman)

2005-04-18, 11:50 PM	#2
steel Cyburbian Registered: Oct 2004 Location: Chicago Posts: 444	Those wood slatted style houses are inspired by the architecture and planning of Sea Ranch near San Francisco in California. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...lr%3D%26sa%3DG That style of architecture was popular in the 70's and was used by several big time architects of the time particularly in the design of Sea Ranch. Sea Ranch was kind of the New Urbanism of its time. the thought was to build very naturally with natural weathering materials and attention to environmental elements such as sun angles. Hence in Amherst you get the name Audobon New Community. of course the Amherst version is a cheap developer's knock off while Sea Ranch was built mostly by Rich people who hired their own world renound architects. Not too much different than what you see between Sea Side and the all to common cheap knock off all over the place. I would be willing to bet that those Sea Ranch style houses fetch the lowest price in the subdivision since they reek of another era and do not fit today's concept of suburban luxury not to mention that the garages only fit 2 cars! can you imagine having to park 2 of your cars outside? Where do you put the jet skis?

2005-04-19, 05:36 PM	#6
Trinity Moses Member Registered: Jan 2004 Location: Dayton, Ohio Posts: 230	The "Sea Ranch Style" was everywhere in the early to mid 70s. It was really popular. It also had of had this "back to the land" "solar panles" connotation, too.... Actually this does not look too bad of a development...the parts with the woodsy-shedsy houses in the forest. One wonders if the interiors have nice high "cathederal ceilings" and such.... The office park is nice too...bland, but it could be worse....

2005-04-19, 10:39 PM	#10
jsk1983 Cyburbian Registered: Feb 2004 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 1,353	In one of the town history books for Amherst that has been published I remember reading of a development that has planned in the 1920s for an area bordered by Sheridan, Millersport, North Forest. I'm thinking it had Audubon in the name. It of course was never built as the depression and the war put an end to large scale projects. I believe it was suppossed to be "mixed use" and included single family homes, high rises, retail, etc.

2005-04-19, 11:41 PM	#11
steel Cyburbian Registered: Oct 2004 Location: Chicago Posts: 444	The Amherst concept of civic space and expression of pride The City of Buffalo concept of civic space and expression of pride image by Buffcity at SSC Why do we treasure the vacuos nature of our burbs while trashing our true treasures?

2005-04-20, 12:58 AM	#13
jsk1983 Cyburbian Registered: Feb 2004 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 1,353	The actual Amherst town hall is housed in a 1960s era colonial style building in the "heart" of the historic village of Williamsville. Its nothing special but its a lot better than the Audubon town center.

2005-04-20, 11:10 AM	#14
UpstateNYRox Cyburbian Registered: Oct 2003 Location: Buffalo, New York Posts: 44	On a side note, homes in Audubon as well as many nearby Amherst neighborhoods are in the middle of an area of soft clay soil that has caused foundations of houses to chrack and/or shift that has rendered many of these houses unsellable and have required costly repairs by homeowners (tens of thousands of dollars) to fix. Since this widespread problem made local new headlines, new housing in the town of Amherst are now required to be built with reinforced foundations.

2005-04-20, 01:58 PM	#15
drucee Cyburbian Registered: Aug 2004 Location: Minneapolis Posts: 227	Is this the reason for the "Swampherst" nickname?

2005-04-20, 06:44 PM	#18
steel Cyburbian Registered: Oct 2004 Location: Chicago Posts: 444	Dan what are the names of the streets in Audobon? Do they have some nature related theme? I know some people that live on Willow Brooke (with an e) Lane. No willows, no brook, unless you count the runoff to the detention pond area.