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We built it, but will they come?
By Kelly Hayes McAlonie
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The Buffalo Psychiatric Center
Photo by Kim Miers.
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As an architect, I am well accustomed to planning vacations around architectural destinations. Glasgow, Paris, and Bilbao are all places that people like me have visited specifically to see in person the work of our heroes. And while these destinations attract industry professionals and architectural buffs, they also attract nonarchitects who have an interest in these prized gems—and see them for the work of art that they are.
Buffalo has become that type of architectural destination. The city is a virtual museum of masterpieces of America’s most celebrated architects. Buffalo is one of the only cities in the U.S. to have the work of America’s three “fathers of architecture”—H. H. Richardson, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Our buildings by these giants of architecture are actually emblematic of each of their careers and therefore important on many levels—not just to us who enjoy them, but also to national architectural historians.
The Buffalo Psychiatric Center was Richardson’s largest and arguably greatest work. Louis Sullivan’s Guaranty Building is one of the finest early skyscrapers in the country and regarded by many to be one of his most beautiful. And Frank Lloyd Wright, while he began his career in Chicago, had two of his most important early commissions in Buffalo.
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Graycliff; photo by Angel Art Photography.
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Darwin Martin House; photo by Angel Art Photography.
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Wright’s self-proclaimed “opus”—the Darwin Martin House—stands as one of the most important examples of the Prairie style in existence. Through the work of countless volunteers and advocates and under the direction of Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects, the estate of Darwin Martin is undergoing a reconstruction/restoration process that will bring it back to life as it was circa 1907—and will potentially make it one of the most important Frank Lloyd Wright destinations in the country. Already the site receives over twenty-one thousand visitors annually and they hope to welcome eighty thousand to one hundred thousand visitors a year when the restoration is complete.
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Tour of the Market Arcade building;
photo by kc kratt.
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Wright’s Blue-Sky Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery; photo courtesy of Forest Lawn.
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Graycliff, in Derby, was the summer house for the Martin family and was also designed by Wright. It, too, is under restoration with Chaintreuil, Jensen, Stark Architects supervising the work. Graycliff receives eighty-one hundred visitors annually with a projected increase in visitors in the future. In addition there are three other privately owned Wright-designed Prairie-style houses in Buffalo. These, along with two newly constructed Wright-designed structures, the Blue-Sky Mausoleum in Forest Lawn Cemetery and the Rowing Boathouse, make Buffalo an important destination for viewing his work.
Many other nineteenth and twentieth century masters have work now standing in Buffalo. The great Daniel Burnham, the fifth president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), designed the Ellicott Square Building, which was the largest office building in the world when constructed. Richardson protégées and nationally lauded McKim, Mead, and White designed several mansions in Buffalo, two of which are still standing: the Williams-Butler Mansion (now the UB Jacobs Executive Development Center) and the adjacent Williams-Pratt Mansion. Richard Upjohn, the first president of the AIA, designed St. Paul’s Cathedral. And America’s first female architect was Buffalo’s own Louise Bethune—she designed the Lafayette Hotel. Gold medalists Eliel and Eero Saarinen designed Kleinhans Music Hall, nationally revered for its modern design and masterful acoustics.
Buffalo’s tradition of architectural excellence continues today. The Montante Cultural Center renovation and restoration at Canisius College by Cannon Design won an AIA National Design Award. Nationally acclaimed and AIA Firm of the Year Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects has designed two buildings in Buffalo: the UB Center for the Arts and the soon-to-open Burchfield-Penney Art Center. Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects have partnered with Canadian powerhouse architect Jack Diamond to design 25 Gates Circle Condominiums, while Flynn Battaglia Architects designed the award-winning Buffalo and Erie County Naval Park and Military Museum, which is scheduled to open this year. Robert Coles Architect designed the recently opened Frank E. Merriweather, Jr. Branch Library, a signature building on Buffalo’s East Side.
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| Views of the Frank E. Merriweather, Jr. Branch Library; photos by Sylvia Cole. |
UB’s Center for the Arts; photo courtesy of the CFA.
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An artist’s rendering of the new Burchfield-Penney Art Center;
courtesy of the Burchfield-Penney.
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The unsung hero of architectural projects in Buffalo these days is the Joint Schools Construction Project. In the 1920s, the City of Buffalo hired internationally renowned educational architect William Ittner from St. Louis to conduct a master plan for its school district. This tradition of design excellence is continued in current reconstruction projects, which find many local architects both creating state-of-the-art educational facilities and helping to define the conversation in architecture for education in this country. As an example of this, the American Architectural Foundation hosted a workshop on educational design, and invited the Buffalo Public Schools along with Wendel Duchscherer Architects and Engineers to participate. This work was published in Architectural Record in February 2007.
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Williams-Butler Mansion (now the
UB Jacobs Executive Development Center);
photos by kc kratt.
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While Buffalo is already an architectural tourist destination, the next three years promise to place the city even more solidly in the national and international spotlight. Next year, Buffalo will host the American Solar Energy Society and the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy conferences. In 2010, AIA New York State will hold its convention here, with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Preservation Conference to follow a year later. Doors Open Niagara, an annual event celebrating the architecture of the Niagara region in Canada and the U.S., grows steadily every fall.
Possibly the best example of contemporary design excellence in partnership with historical significance in Buffalo today is the Martin House visitor center by Toshiko Mori, the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion. Mori’s reinterpretation of Wright’s Prairie style design will no doubt become a nationally prominent building and tourist attraction in its own right.
An Architectural Visitors Center at a restored H. H. Richardson Complex would be one of a very few buildings with such a focus. It would provide Buffalo with a center from which to tell the story of architectural excellence in Buffalo—past, present, and future. It would further cement our status as a destination for the thousands of tourists from around the world each year, who, like me, love architecture and are excited to travel to see and learn more about it.
Kelly Hayes McAlonie is president of the American Institute of Architects Buffalo/WNY Chapter and an avid traveler in search of great architecture.
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