How we began

Founded in 1987 by Dr.  Henry Louis Taylor, Jr., the UB Center for Urban Studies is a research, neighborhood planning and community development institute, which focuses on the transformation of vulnerable, underdeveloped and distressed neighborhoods into communities of opportunity. We seek to achieve this goal by redeveloping neighborhoods within the larger context of turning the urban metropolis into a good and just city.  During its early years, the UB Center was an independent center that worked under the supervision of the Vice-President for Public Service and Urban Affairs at the University at Buffalo. During this period, the UB Center popularized public service at the University and led a major effort to revitalize the neighborhood immediately surrounding the UB South Campus. Then, in 1998, the UB Center transferred to the UB School of Architecture and Planning, where it begin working on a model to transformed vulnerable, distressed and underdeveloped neighborhoods into communities of opportunities. This place-based redevelopment strategy caused the UB center to increasingly focus on the role of institutions in mitigating urban problems in its planning and community development efforts.