AM&A: the future of Buffalo might not be shovel-ready

Craig posted about AM&A's on his blog, and and I commented thusly: Subjectively, I think that the Main Street facade of AM&A's is cool. Not pretty. Not historic. Just plain cool. I love it. I walk by that empty pathetic shell of a cool building and picture a bustling Buffalo with an Armani Exchange & Cafe on the ground floor of that very building. The fact that Uniland's got this deal does not make me feel in any way pleased. What does Uniland do? It facilitates sprawl and builds grand business parks in Amherst. I can just picture it now - a business park on Main Street, surrounded by ground-level parking as far as the eye can see. I would much rather like to see Uniland at least preserve the facade of the AM&A building that is visible from Main Street. Tear down the rest to your heart's content. Did I mention I LOVE that facade? Now, Craig says that the AM&A facade is forgettable. He says it's worthless. That it's historically and architecturally insignificant. Maybe all of that's true. Subjectively. But the answer to Buffalo's ills isn't to demolish the inconvenient. The key to attracting local business isn't to exchange the distinctive for the current trend. The future of Buffalo isn't necessarily shovel-ready.

Despite a national request for other plans, only Uniland Development of Amherst has answered the call for proposals to redevelop the long-idle AM&A's department store site in downtown Buffalo. Uniland, which has been eyeing the dormant retail site for nearly two years, has submitted a slightly reworked version of its plan to build a $40 million, eight-story office complex, with underground parking, at 377 Main St. The local developer also is maintaining its pledge to deliver a tenant with about 400 employees to the building, immediately filling half its capacity. "We are pleased to be presenting our vision of 377 Main St. to the Buffalo Urban Development Corp.," Uniland's Tom Widzinski said.

I'll post the counterpoint to the notion that AM&A is historically and architecturally insignificant.