Phoenix Brewery Apartments by Carmina Wood Morris wins Historical Preservation award from Preservation League of NYS

Buffalo, NY According to Carmina Wood Morris (CWM), the Preservation League of New York State has selected the Phoenix Brewery Apartments to receive an award for excellence in historic preservation. The League’s statewide awards program honors notable achievements in retaining, promoting, and reusing the state’s irreplaceable architectural heritage.

The building’s rebirth was to include 3,000 s/f of commercial space and loft apartments with exposed brick accents, tall ceilings, concrete floors and high-end finishes.  Containing 15 one-bedroom and 16 two-bedroom units ranging in size from 714 s/f to 1,314 s/f, each has a unique layout and several have second level loft areas. This is the first market-rate residential development within the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. In addition, Sinatra is donating 10% of project profits to Say YES Buffalo, a community education collaborative aimed at increasing high school and post-secondary completion rates.

The 21 market-rate apartments all have views of the city; those on the south offer views of the downtown skyline while those to the north look out across the burgeoning medical campus.  Outdoor patios on the roofs of both single story wings and another on the upper roof are available to all the building’s tenants.  These amenities, the unique apartment designs and the building’s prime location on the Medical Campus has led to full lease-up within a few weeks of opening. This project is a huge part of the momentum that is transforming Buffalo, another prime example of adaptive reuse benefitting the entire community. 

The project team included Carmina Wood Morris DPC, architects; Sinatra and Co. Real Estate, developer; IBC Engineering PC; and Studio T3 Engineering, structural engineers. The project utilized State and Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits. 

The awards will be presented at the Preservation League’s Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony in New York City at the New York Yacht Club.

Carmina Wood Morris has developed a distinct reputation for their design and technical skills over the last sixteen years. The principals of CWM: Steven J. Carmina, AIA; R. Christopher Wood, PE; Jonathan H. Morris, AIA; and Pamela Timby-Straitiff, CID IIDA; credit the success of their firm to the attention to detail, aesthetics, and service given to each project and client. They are a team collaborating to achieve solutions, grounded in core values, respected in their profession and community.