The Vision - Downtown is Where the Ellicott Plan, the Olmsted Park System, and the Waterfront Converge

The most basic elements of the vision are already in place – embedded in Joseph Ellicott's 1804 radial plan for the city and reinforced by Frederick Law Olmsted’s park and parkway system. Taken together, these historic plans link all the neighborhoods to Downtown and both the neighborhoods and Downtown to the waterfront. The Queen City was, according to Olmsted, "…the best planned city in America." It needs no new grand physical vision, only respect for the one that helped make it great, along with a commitment to build on the strategic investments already made Downtown, a dedication to the development of a new regional economy, and a creative response to our contemporary problems.

The Queen City Hub envisions the Ellicott radial plan and the Olmsted Park and Parkway system as key elements of a 21st century city. It provides a system of great streets and parkways fully integrated with strategic economic clusters, neighborhoods, and the waterfronts of the Buffalo River, Lake Erie, and the Niagara River. Embedded in the work of Ellicott and Olmsted is the understanding of an urban core which concentrates investments and provides the heart of the city and region. The historic plans also provide the basic clues to a system of gateways that announce entry into the city, to the Downtown core, and to the waterfronts.

• Summary
• Volume I: Overview
• Volume II: The Work Plan
• Preface
• 1. Vision
  • Regional Center
  • Neighborhood of Neighborhoods
  • For Everyone
  • Ellicott, Olmsted, Waterfront
  • Decades of Progress
• 2. Priorities
• 3. Progress Report
• 4. The Work Plan
• References
• Acknowlegements
• A New Story