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Niagara Falls High School
niagra falls
saved
threat: demolition for strip style development
Across New York State and the nation, communities are facing difficult, often divisive decisions concerning the fate of older school buildings. While some municipalities are choosing to rehabilitate schools, others are favoring new construction and abandoning buildings that have functioned as neighborhood anchors for generations. The City of Niagara Falls is in the midst of such a controversy regarding the future of the 1924 Niagara Falls High School, vacated in June 2000 after a new high school opened elsewhere in the city. What’s at stake in Niagara Falls is whether the landmark-quality school will be retained for new community uses or demolished and replaced with a plaza-style shopping mall. The handsome three-story building, with its ornate 1,200-seat auditorium, occupies a prominent site in the heart of the city’s “Little Italy” neighborhood, which is experiencing reinvestment. After determining that the school district could not use the former school, the Niagara Falls School Board agreed to sell the property to Benderson Development Corporation. Benderson proposes to redevelop the site with a new commercial facility if it can obtain the necessary zoning change. Unless city government, the school board, and others can agree on the desired outcome for the building and site, the Classical Revival style school will be leveled and a shopping mall will be built in its place.
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