Mission – What We Do
The Coles House Project preserves and stewards the Coles House and Studio. We uplift and nurture Robert Traynham Coles’ legacy of advocacy and architecture through public programming, community driven design, and architecture and planning. We intend for our work to model and inspire design, preservation, and conservation that brings investment, health and well-being, and justice to Buffalo’s East Side.
Vision – What We Imagine
The Coles House and Studio is thoughtfully restored and transformed into a place where intergenerational designers, architects, planners, and advocates find inspiration and community. Its restoration and programming advocates for a just built environment by becoming a resource and an inspiration for the East Side communities of Buffalo; is a place to engage, study, vision, and disseminate ideas for an environmentally healthy community in underserved parts of Buffalo; is connected to resources for individuals and communities to address pertinent problems related to the built environment that include but are not limited to housing, public spaces, and policy; and contribute to communal knowledge sharing and building around Robert T. Coles and other important community builders.
Values – Who We Are
We work toward Design Justice
We are community activists that work toward Design Justice. Our approach begins first by recognizing the harm that design, architecture, and planning have had on marginalized communities in Buffalo’s East Side. Through design, we then seek to challenge, resist, dismantle and restructure processes that contribute to systemic injustices by uplifting and supporting communities that have been marginalized by extractive practices and policies. We work to provide resources and collective experiences to the conservation of vital buildings and public spaces of Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian spaces; invest in the design processes that lead to inclusive public spaces and affordable and just neighborhoods; and center communal knowledge building and sharing through anti-racist design education and spatial practice.
We value this House and Studio
We celebrate and take great pride in the gift of this House and Studio and the story it tells about a Black Architect, the power of advocacy, and the role of architecture in the community’s health and vitality. The House and Studio bears witness. Its unique reinterpretation of prefabrication details, its assemblage of beautiful spaces, and its response to the social, contextual, and physical construction of a highway call on us to work with equal intention. We use the intimate nature of the house to mentor, to build community, and to create a home for ideas that challenge and transform the practice of architecture and the built environment. We seek to make known the name of Robert T. Coles’ as well as other unrecognized architects, planners, craftspeople, and community builders that have had significant impact on the urban fabric of Buffalo.
We are Rooted in Place but Expansive
The Coles House and Studio is rooted in Hamlin Park in Buffalo’s East Side. We are energized and inspired by the people, the House and Studio, and the surrounding context. We strive to build a restorative process of preservation and conservation that positively impacts the surrounding neighborhood, and expand beyond to the broader collection of built works by Robert T. Coles, as well as other significant spaces that have and continue to contribute to the vitality of Black and Brown communities within Buffalo.
We are Community Focused
We believe in advocating for community agency and are committed to community-driven design processes. We will work with our neighbors to co-design with communities in Buffalo’s East Side through place-based care that fosters places for people to thrive.
We do things differently to disrupt the status quo
We question, resist, and propose alternatives to existing forms of extractive and disinvestment practices within the built environment. We work inside and outside institutions to elevate and support marginalized communities that have been harmed by institutionalized policies. We challenge hierarchical structures and strive to operate and model as an organization that works in new ways to achieve our objectives.
We are committed to fostering and uplifting Black, Diverse, Women, LGBTQIA2S+ Architects
We will use the house, as Robert T. Coles did, to inspire and foster an intergenerational community of designers and architects to make the field of architecture and allied disciplines more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. We believe in fostering a space that brings together students, educators, practitioners, and community members to build new forms of design education and practice.
We Will Learn from the Past to Build a More Just Buffalo
The life and influence of Robert T. Coles was both unprecedented and very much a reflection of the era, city, and profession in which he found himself. We will learn from the past and aspire, as he did, to mobilize to a more equitable and just future.
