Adaptive Reuse of a former warehouse campus into a new mixed-use, 78-unit, affordable apartment building and health care facility centrally located along Genesee Avenue in Buffalo’s Genesee/Moselle Neighborhood.
The historic 110,000 square foot, four-story and two-story buildings accommodate an affordable housing program featuring Energy Star eco-friendly state of the art 1-, 2 -, and 3-bedroom apartments with free on-site parking, in-building laundry facilities and 5,000 square feet of residential community space.
About a quarter of the units are designated for households with at least one person who meets the State of New York and Federal definition of homeless or homeless family and 75% of those will prefer survivors of domestic violence.
Located on-site, the Matt Urban Center provides a Permanent Supportive Housing team with access to case managers a broad array of support services including life skills training, exercise, job readiness, financial literacy, nutrition workshops, transportation assistance, and enrollment in English classes.
The four-story timber frame and masonry warehouse building underwent extensive structural restoration with new timber columns, girders, and tongue-and-groove long span timber decking. The original powerhouse had a new mezzanine constructed to create two-story high “townhouse-style” units. A one-story monitor roofed garage also required extensive repairs to its timber roof structure. Water damaged timber truss chords were repaired in-place with a custom designed Under Squinted Stop Splayed Scarf Joint With Table and Wedge Timber Joint. The monitor unfortunately was not salvageable, but its shape was preserved by installing traditional prefabricated wood trusses to match the original dimensions. Other improvements included masonry repairs, basement wall stone repairs, new areaways, site work, and stormwater management.
A new 8,100 square foot, one-story masonry and bar joist structure was also constructed in the northeast corner of the site to provide a full-service health center. Jericho Road Community Health Center provides high-quality medical care, especially for people with limited access to medical care, like families living in poverty, refugees, and immigrants.
