Property Description

Canisius College –  Village Townhouses,  Buffalo, NY 14208

The Challenge

Canisius College acquired a 2.5 acre site for student housing to accommodate about 200 students. It needed the project completed within 12 months. The site was bordered by Mt. St. Joseph’s Academy, Medaille College and other Canisius College buildings, all of which were functional with a high level of student activity. The confined nature of the site coupled with the activity would pose two major challenges: Uniland would have to ensure that the schools and their students would be undisturbed during construction; Staging for construction equipment and materials would be difficult. In addition, Canisius needed its new student housing to fit aesthetically with the site’s existing architecture.me.

Strategy

To address the high level of student activity surrounding the site, Uniland worked closely with officials from each institution to establish safe pedestrian areas, while also providing access to the site for construction vehicles. When designing the new student housing, the architecture team chose to emulate key aspects of the site’s most prominent existing building to ensure a cohesive look.

Results

Completed within a ten-month period, the 225-bed project consists of five residential buildings and one college community center. The red brick facades, turrets and arched windows of the new buildings are consistent with the architecture that surrounds the project. Unialnd’s use of exact timing requirements for arrival and departure of equipment and supplies allowed for seamless construction staging on the small site. Extensive coordination between Uniland and school officials allowed construction to go on without disruption to the schools and students.  To this day, the townhouse complex is the most desirable on the Canisius College campus. Each year students participate in a lottery to gain one of the sought after units.