The Perry Choice Neighborhood Planning Initiative—a collaborative led by the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) and the University at Buffalo Center for Urban Studies—selected WRT and its team of consultants to provide Master Planning Architectural and Engineering services related to the requirements of the 2010 Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant recently awarded to the city's Commodore Perry Homes neighborhood and Extension Site, one of the city's oldest neighborhoods.
“Buffalo is fortunate to be guided by WRT, one of the premier neighborhood revitalization architectural firms in America,” BMHA Executive Director Dawn E. Sanders said in a news release on Monday. “WRT has the deepest experience and the highest achievement when it comes to modernizing and transforming public housing into residential oases that become signature properties for all who live in and near them,” Sanders went on to say.
The goal of the Perry Choice Neighborhood Initiative, as well as the Choice Neighborhood program in general, is to develop an innovative plan to transform the Commodore Perry Homes community and surrounding neighborhood into a vibrant, sustainable, mixed-income community—ultimately fostering opportunity to its residents and acting as a springboard, enabling those in the community to earn a living wage, as well as helping children to do well in school, to graduate on time, and to go on to college and/or obtain meaningful employment. In addition, the revitalization of the Perry neighborhood is expected to act as a catalyst, aiding in the future redevelopment activities of the adjacent neighborhoods, as well as the larger surrounding community.
Of 71 applicants nationwide, the BMHA Perry Choice Neighborhood was one of 13 recipients to receive the planning grant from the Office of Housing and Urban Development's new Choice Neighborhood Initiative. Upon completion of the planning phase, BMHA will be eligible to apply for a $30 million implementation grant. The Perry Choice Neighborhood project in Buffalo represents the fourth Choice Neighborhood planning initiative that WRT will lead across the country—the other Choice Neighborhoods include Meridian, Mississippi; Jersey City, New Jersey; and Kansas City, Missouri.
The Perry Choice Neighborhood project is expected to commence in April 2012.
