Code as urban vision: a critique of the Buffalo Green Code

Adopted in 2017, the Buffalo Green Code was lauded as a comprehensive urban vision for Buffalo, New York. This form-based code would simplify Buffalo’s land use regulations by prescribing what could be built and where, and provide a unified framework for its future. Yet, despite the claims of comprehensiveness, the code left two pressing challenges of the city unaddressed: urban integration of vacant lots and lack of affordable housing. The paper argues that, given these omissions, the code fails to provide a grounded vision, while universalizing reductive fabric-making notions unsuitable for much of the city.