Step 1: long-term neglect. Step 2: structural failure. Step 3: demolition. Believe it or not, “Vacancy Vortex” is REAL in America’s best preserved city. Described in 1992 as a “13-room pure Victorian" needing “just a few touches,” the Queen Anne dwelling at No. 15 Radcliffe Street is experiencing the first step in a three-step process that preservationists in Buffalo, NY have identified as the “vacancy vortex,” an unfortunate cycle of abandonment, subsequent neglect and ultimate destruction. Step 1: long-neglect. A quarter of a century later, those "few touches” to No. 15 Radcliffe have grown to include several significant repairs. Fallen yellow Queen Anne shingles shower the sidewalk surrou
I am not against development. I am against bad development. I support sensitive and sustainable development; one compatible to the natural and historic setting, and done with the community’s well-being and longevity in mind. I do not support stripping the land and community of its character without mitigation for Anywhere, USA construction at a rapid pace. Mt. Pleasant, SC is becoming Anywhere, USA. As we speak, two pre-WWII structures are being demolished for a hundred-home residential development on the corner of Six Mile Road and Primus Drive (an tree-lined dirt road) in Mt. Pleasant, SC. One of those structures is an early 1900s Freedman’s Cottage, a building typology that once defined t
