Campus: Flexible Methods for a City in Decline

Abstract

Buffalo, New York was once among the wealthiest cities in the United States, today it is one of the poorest, with a poverty rate of 30%. The economic-infrastructural shift following the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway ended the region’s reliance on the Erie Canal, leading to years of economic and population decline. The resulting urban voids left from acres of abandoned worker’s homes, industrial land and commercial strips provide opportunities for an innovative approach to negotiating Buffalo’s urban issues. This thesis proposes the university campus as a pilot project to address settlement and building in this shrinking context by way of a new urban paradigm incorporating ecology, urbanism and architecture.