Press Releases

Frank Lloyd Wright House Receives $2.5 Million Gift For New Visitor Center

Toshiko Mori-designed Greatbatch Pavilion to Begin Construction in February 2008

BUFFALO, NY, January 29, 2008 – The Martin House Restoration Corporation (MHRC), which operates Frank Lloyd Wright’s landmark Darwin D. Martin House Complex, announced today a $2.5 million gift for its new, Toshiko Mori-designed visitor center pavilion. Wright’s largest Prairie Style complex (32,000 square feet) is currently undergoing a $40 million renovation to restore it to the original 1907 condition. The gift from the East Hill Foundation enables the MHRC to begin construction on the visitor center in late February with completion anticipated in late 2008.

Toshiko Mori, chair of the Department of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, has received numerous awards for her work, including the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Mori’s design gracefully complements the revival of the historic Wright complex, employing Wright’s architectural philosophies in a 21st-century iteration of his “organic principles.” The transparent, glass-walled pavilion visually connects the landscape with its interior, and its proportions and geometries—such as the dramatically cantilevered roof—echo Wright’s Martin House design. The 6,000-square-foot building will serve as the entryway for visitors and will house exhibits featuring architectural drawings and archival photographs of the Martin House.

The MHRC will name the visitor center “The Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion,” in honor of its patrons, whose family founded the East Hill Foundation. Buffalo-born Wilson Greatbatch developed the first implantable cardiac pacemaker in the late 1950s, and in recent years has focused on developing alternative energy solutions.

This gift comes at a time of great energy and growth for many art and architecture organizations in Buffalo, supporting the city’s cultural renewal, including:

• The city’s first new art museum in over 100 years, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center’s 75,000-square-foot home designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates opens to the public in Fall 2008.
• Frank Lloyd Wright’s landmark Graycliff Estate received $350,000 grant to further restorations.
• The Albright-Knox Art Gallery presents the exclusive showing of the Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light, featuring works by Bruce Nauman, Joseph Kosuth and Dan Flavin.
• Extensive restorations to the Richardson Olmsted Complex (H.H. Richardson’s Buffalo State Hospital) and its signature gothic towers are underway.
• More than 100 years after its design, Wright’s Rowing Boathouse is now realized on the shores of Buffalo’s Black Rock Channel and open for architectural tours.

Buffalo’s citizens, foundations, and the state and local government continue to invest in the city’s rich art and architectural heritage, with projects focused on preserving these treasures—and building new facilities—to sustain them well into the future.

Located across the street from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center’s new 75,000-square-foot home designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates will open to the public in Fall 2008. The new, LEED-certified building is an elegant structure of interlocking forms and an innovative combination of materials, surrounded by a series of gardens and walkways. The first art museum built in Buffalo in over 100 years, the BPAC will offer three times more exhibition space to house its comprehensive collection of works by Charles Burchfield and regional artists such as Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo, as well as an extensive learning lab for Buffalo State College students.

Set on a 70-foot cliff overlooking Lake Erie, Frank Lloyd Wright’s stunning Graycliff Estate recently completed extensive exterior restorations of all three Wright-designed buildings, including its striking red roofs, massive stone chimneys, cantilevered balconies, and glass pavilion windows. Saved from demolition in 1998 and later designated a state historic landmark, Graycliff has emerged as a significant contribution to the canon of Wright’s celebrated ‘organic’ style of architecture and recently received a $350,000 grant to further restorations.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse opened last fall on the shores of Buffalo’s Black Rock Channel to great acclaim. Based on a 1905 design included in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wasmuth Portfolio series of distinctive Prairie Style lithographs, the $5.4 million boathouse is the new home of the nation’s largest rowing club and is now open for architectural tours. Realized nearly a century after its design, the boathouse joins the Wright-designed Martin House, Graycliff Estate, Blue-Sky Mausoleum, Walter V. Davidson and William R. Heath House in Buffalo’s architectural landscape.

Housed in its original building by Green and Wicks (1900-1905) and an inspired modernist addition by Gordon Bunshaft (1962), the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is part of Buffalo’s strong architectural tradition, and boasts exceptional collections of modern and contemporary art. The Albright-Knox recently debuted the exclusive showing of Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light, on view through February 24, 2008. Organized by the AKAG, the exhibition features more than 75 works in the medium of light from the collection of Count Giuseppe Panza, including works by Bruce Nauman, Joseph Kosuth, and Dan Flavin. In March, the museum will present a survey of video and new media artist Jennifer Steinkamp’s works since 1993.

Extensive restoration and renovation of Buffalo’s landmark Richardson Olmsted Complex (H.H. Richardson’s Buffalo State Hospital) is underway, and plans to repurpose the historic buildings and Frederick Law Olmsted-designed grounds as a mixed-use, multi-purpose civic campus will begin next year. A testament to Buffalo’s rich architectural heritage, the reuse of the property could include—among other uses—an Architecture and Visitor Center, a hotel, a conference center, a parking structure, high end condominiums, artist studios, townhouses, and academic space for Buffalo State College. 

The redevelopment of Buffalo’s new $49 million public waterfront development along the historic Erie Canal Harbor is nearing completion. A park will take the prominent place along the waterfront esplanade, which will also include space for concerts and events as well as retail space. The restored terminus of the Erie Canal also features maritime facilities and a new home for the Buffalo Naval and Military Park.

The community has also invested in the ongoing preservation and restoration of the historic Roycroft Campus in nearby East Aurora. Following the renovation of the historic Roycroft Inn, the current phase of campus restoration includes the $3 million reconstruction of the Power House and the Copper Shop. Founded in 1895 by Elbert Hubbard, the Roycrofters were a community of skilled craftsmen—printers, book designers, furniture-makers—whose work is now highly sought after by Arts and Crafts collectors across the country.

Buffalo’s Rich Cultural History
These initiatives reflect the city’s ongoing cultural and civic investment in its celebrated art and architectural history. In addition to its architectural treasures, Buffalo is home to the preeminent cultural institutions of the region, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and its exceptional collection of modern and contemporary art, the multi-disciplinary Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center founded by artists Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, the CEPA Photography Gallery, and Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. The community continues to foster the development of contemporary artists with a range of programming and initiatives, including the Beyond/In Western New York biennial presentation, the Buffalo Arts Studio, and Artspace development. 

The city of Buffalo boasts one of the strongest architectural histories in the United States, with landmarks designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (Darwin D. Martin House and Graycliff Estate), H. H. Richardson (former Buffalo State Hospital), Eliel and Eero Saarinen (Kleinhans Music Hall), Louis Sullivan (Guaranty Building), Stanford White (Williams-Pratt Mansion), and Frederick Law Olmsted (Buffalo Parks and Parkways). The diversity of architects illustrates Buffalo’s unique role in American history as a city of culture and innovation.

Buffalo is a city with a longstanding history of innovation, discovery, creativity, production and support for architecture, the arts, and culture. From the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, through the invention of the grain elevator, to the harnessing of hydroelectric power at nearby Niagara Falls and the subsequent development of aviation, automobile and steel plants, Buffalo has played a distinguished role in the shaping of the American experience—a history that continues to be made today.

Media Contacts:

Kristen Titus
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
212-671-5173
ktitus@resnicowschroeder.com

Sascha Freudenheim
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
212-671-5172
sfreudenheim@resnicowschroeder.com

Ed Healy
Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau
716-852-0511, x236
healy@buffalocvb.org

Doug Sitler
Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau
716-852-0511, x252
sitler@buffalocvb.org