In the Pipeline

The next couple of years promise to be the most exciting yet for Buffalo’s ongoing transformation. A series of new developments throughout 2021 and 2022 will build on the momentum of recent years and elevate Buffalo into the international spotlight.

• The Buffalo AKG Art Museum is set to complete its $160 million expansion in the spring of 2023, the first such project at the museum in 60 years. The Buffalo AKG partnered with renowned architect Shohei Shigematsu of the architecture firm OMA to complete the expansion, which will include 30,000 square feet of additional exhibition space that will showcase more of the gallery’s renowned collection of contemporary art.

• One of the shining stars of Buffalo’s dining scene over the last decade has been the West Side Bazaar, a not-for-profit incubator space for recently resettled immigrants that sells food and wares from around the world. The bazaar’s expansion and move into a larger space at the end of 2021 presents a fresh opportunity to showcase how immigrants have helped infuse new life into Buffalo and its dining scene in the 21st century.

• The Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens is set to complete a 40,000 square foot expansion in 2022 that will add a butterfly conservatory and additional exhibit space in a new addition designed by renowned architect Toshiko Mori.

• What’s old is new again in Buffalo, and nowhere will that transformation and adaptive reuse be more apparent than at Silo City in 2022. Silo City’s ambitious transformation of its grain silos into a mixed use development featuring apartments, offices and artists lofts will be the latest example of Buffalo’s effort to find new life for one of the world’s largest collections of cavernous, 100-foot-tall grain silos. The grain silos’ rise, fall and rebirth mirrors and embodies the broader transformation taking place throughout the city.