Buffalo's Architectural Heritage
Come to Buffalo and explore the tree-filled parks and mansion-lined parkways designed by the father of American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted. Experience the restorations of Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House Complex and Graycliff. Walk down streets populated by buildings designed by Louis Sullivan, H.H. Richardson, Stanford White, Richard Upjohn, Eliel and Eero Saarinen and Daniel Burnham. You can even stay in authentic Arts & Crafts accommodations designed by American original Elbert Hubbard at the beautiful Roycroft Inn in nearby East Aurora.
Sullivan’s Guaranty Building is a masterpiece of early skyscraper design. Richardson’s Buffalo State Hospital, a Romanesque monument that towers over the city’s West Side, is a National Historic Landmark. Wright’s Martin House Complex has a special place in his vast body of work because it was designed not as a single residence but as a group of interrelated and connected buildings - the only time in his 72-year career he had the opportunity to design such a complex. It is considered by many scholars to be among the finest expressions of his acclaimed “ Prairie Style.”
Olmsted’s work in Buffalo is just as noteworthy. The Buffalo Parks System was the first of its kind in the United States - a visionary attempt to create islands of tranquility amid a growing city's tumult. Connected by a series of bucolic parkways and broad avenues lined with elegant homes, Buffalo's parks system remains an extraordinary urban amenity.
Hubbard's Roycroft Campus is of international significance as well. It was the cradle of the American Arts & Crafts Movement and at one time employed as many as 500 artisans. Today, the Roycroft Inn has been restored to its former glory and the surrounding campus is undergoing a similar restoration.
Buffalo's “Millionaires’ Row” - Delaware Avenue - is a living museum of Gilded Age grandeur featuring homes of astonishing size and splendor. Also not to be missed are the massive grain elevators along the banks of the Buffalo River. You’ll be amazed by the scale of these towering monoliths that influenced the course of modern architecture.
Come to Buffalo and see for yourself what The New York Times called “a textbook for a course in modern American buildings.”
Click here for a map of some of Buffalo's architectural treasures.
