Background Reports

• Restoration, Redevelopment and New Architecture in Buffalo
• A City Rises Again: The Preservation Movement in Buffalo
• 2007 CVB Annual Business Review download

Projects Underway

Henry Hobson Richardson Complex

Restoration Architects: TBD
Budget: $76 million
Project Completion: ?
Original Construction Date: 1870-1896
The city’s landmark Henry Hobson Richardson building, one of the nation’s most historically significant structures, will receive $76 million from the state for the first step in a major restoration plan leading to the complex’s ultimate reuse.

Erie Canal Harbor

Project Architects: Parsons Brinckerhoff for waterside elements, and Flynn Battaglia Architects, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, John Milner Associates, and C&G Partners for landside and interpretive elements
Budget: $49 million
Project Completion: 2008 (Phase 1)
Buffalo’s position at the western end of the Erie Canal made it the Gateway to the West -- the departure point for millions of immigrants on their way to the American heartland and the catalyst for the city’s rise to prominence in the mid-19th century. Completed in 1825, the Erie Canal linked Buffalo with Albany, creating a waterway between the Great Lakes and New York City and dramatically transforming United States commerce, industry and immigration. The Erie Canal Harbor project will redevelop approximately 12.5 waterfront acres into a contemporary tourism destination that celebrates the site’s historic significance as well as establishes the area as a new maritime and entertainment center.

Darwin D. Martin House Complex

Restoration Architects: Hamilton, Houston & Lownie Architects
Budget: $40 million
Project Completion: 2010
Original Construction Date: 1903-1905 Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Martin House for his long time friend and loyal patron Darwin D. Martin. The house is located on Jewett Parkway and adjacent to Buffalo’s Olmsted-designed Delaware Park. After Martin’s death the house was abandoned and suffered significant damage until 1992, when the Martin House Restoration Corporation (MHRC) was formed to lead and oversee the landmark’s restoration. Also part of the Martin House complex is the Wright- designed Gardener’s Cottage, which MHRC acquired in 2006 to reunite the complete Martin estate.

Burchfield-Penney Art Center

Project Architects: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects
Budget: $30 million
Project Completion: Fall 2008
BPAC’s new 75,000-square-foot museum, located on the Buffalo State Campus, will provide additional space for the museum’s exhibition galleries and education and public programs. Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects’ design for the new BPAC is an elegant structure of interlocking geometric forms and an innovative combination of materials. Surrounded by gardens and walkways, the building will also serve as an academic resource for the Buffalo State College community.

Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens

Architect: Lord and Burnham
Budget: $20 million
Original Construction Date: 1898 Restoration: 1998-Present
Originally called the South Park Conservatory, the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens is one of two remaining “Crystal Palaces” built by Lord & Burnham sited in a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (the other is in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park). South Park was created from 162 acres of farm land. The South Park Conservatory was included to showcase tropical plant species while the rest of the park was designed to feature more hardy temperate species, including an Arboretum, Pinetum, a Shrub Garden and a Bog Garden. The Gardens are currently undergoing a $20 million restoration based on the theme of “the Buffalo Meridian.” This theme presents Buffalo as the terminus of an around-the-world tour that showcases the myriad of climates and plant communities that share this longitudinal location

Louis Sullivan’s Guaranty Building

Architects: Sullivan and Adler
Budget: $12 million
Construction Date: 1895
Restoration Completion: 2008
ne of the masterpieces of Louis Sullivan, the Guaranty Building was one of the first skyscrapers in America. After a fire in 1974, the building suffered significant damage, but with the help of local civic leaders and preservationists around the country the building was saved. In 2002 local law firm Hodgson Russ Inc., purchased the building to ensure its continued preservation and to use as its principal Buffalo office. The building is currently undergoing a $12 million dollar interior renovation.

Toshiko Mori’s Visitors’ Center at the Darwin D. Martin House

Project Architect: Toshiko Mori
Budget: $6 million
Project Completion: 2008
The visitors’ center will provide gallery spaces, a shop, and a choreographed tour of Wright’s Darwin D. Martin House. The new building will have tree-lined courts, flowerbeds, a garden pavilion and low brick walls gracefully complementing the Wright landmark.

Roycroft Campus

Architect: Not on record
Restoration: 2005-Present
Budget: $4.75 million ($2 million Copper Shop; $2.75 million Power House)
Vast expansion and restoration projects are currently underway for the Roycroft Campus. Ten years after the $9 million dollar completion of the Roycroft Inn, which attracts over 150,000 visitors per year, the Roycroft Campus Corporation purchased the Copper Shop. The Copper Shop is the focal point of the Campus activities, showcasing works from over fifty artisans. The Copper Shop features a restored finishing room circa 1918 complete with interior cathedral ceiling and exterior masonry block walls. The Power House, originally built in 1910 and acquired by the Campus in 2005 will be rebuilt according to its original design including the 20’ base of the original chimney. The completed Power House will serve as the visitor center, gift shop, classroom and special event center.

Graycliff

Restoration Architects: Hamilton, Houston & Lownie Architects
Budget: $3.2 million
Project Completion: Late 2010
Original Construction Date: 1926-27
Graycliff was the last built Wright commission in the Buffalo area and the summer home for Darwin D. Martin, located on the shores of Lake Erie in Derby, NY. Over the last several decades, the house suffered damage, much like the Martin House. In 1999, the Graycliff Conservancy, Inc. acquired the home and is now responsible for the restoration of the site, which is on New York State’s National Register of Historic Places.

Michigan Avenue Heritage Corridor

Project Architects: Frank T. Brzezinski
Budget: $1 million
Project Completion: TBD
The Michigan Avenue Heritage Corridor is being created to commemorate the African American experience in Buffalo and the role the Underground Railroad, the Civil Rights Movement and America’s Classical Music, Jazz, played in shaping that experience. The Corridor links the Michigan Street Baptist Church, one of the oldest properties in Buffalo continuously operated by African Americans, and a sanctuary for hundreds of freedom seekers on their way to Canada in the mid-1800s; the Colored Musicians Club, the heart and soul of Buffalo’s jazz community for more than 70 years; and the Nash House, the one time home of the Reverend Jesse Edward Nash, longtime leader of Buffalo’s Civil Rights movement. The house will include a public museum and research and office space.

Olmsted’s Delaware Park

Project Architects: Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
Construction Date: 1868-1898
Restoration: Ongoing
Three hundred and fifty acres in size, Buffalo’s Delaware Park is one of the most significant parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted – one of America’s greatest landscape architects. The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy was formed to maintain, preserve and enhance Frederick Law Olmsted-designed parks and parkways in Buffalo. The Park’s restoration continues today.

Upcoming Projects

Frank Lloyd Wright Filling Station

Project Architect: Patrick Mahoney & Anthony Puttnam (FLW apprentice)
Budget: $3 million
Project Completion: TBD
Original Design Date: 1927
Originally intended for the corner of Michigan and Cherry Streets in downtown Buffalo, this Wright-designed winged Tydol station will be constructed at the Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum and will be readily accessible to visitors of the museum, serving as a permanent installation. Recently Completed Projects

Recently Completed Projects

New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, University at Buffalo

Architect: Francis Cauffman Foley Hoffmann Architects
Budget: $52 million
Grand Opening: June 2, 2006
The four-story, 130,000-square-foot building located on Virginia Street is the location of state-of-the-art laboratories where scientists are exploring new treatment options and medical devices for cancer, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. The building exterior includes areas of red brick, zinc, glass, and white aluminum and a profusion of windows, enabling abundant sunlight to pass throughout the interior of the building. The Center of Excellence is interconnected with the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute and Roswell Park’s Center for Genetics and Pharmacology, producing over 400,000 square feet of state-of-the-art research facilities which is known as the Buffalo Life Sciences Complex.

Shea’s Performing Arts Center

Architect: C.W. and George L. Rapp Budget: $22.5 million
Original Construction Date: 1926
Restoration and Expansion: 1997 - Present.
Ongoing expansion: new marquee erected in 1995; major stage-house expansion completed in 1999; new blade sign erected in 2004.
One of only four Tiffany-designed theatres still in existence, Shea’s began life in 1926 as a grand movie palace and served for a time as a Vaudeville house before returning to its original use as a movie theater. In the 1980s, it found new life as a home for touring Broadway productions. Shea’s is a member of the National Register of Historic Places and the League of Historic American Theatres. The exterior restoration of this architectural landmark was completed in 2004. The interior renovation is ongoing and is made possible by volunteers and docents from the Buffalo region.

Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute

Project Architect: Mehrdad Yazdani
Budget: $21 million
Project Completion: 2005
The new Medical Research Institute is located in the heart of downtown Buffalo’s medical campus and provides new molecular biology facilities and laboratory space for the Institute, an independent non-profit biomedical research facility headed by Nobel-Laureate Herbert Hauptman.

Righteous Babe Records and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center

Renovation Architect: Architectural Resources
Budget: $10 million
Project Completion: 2006
Original Architect: John H. Selkirk
Original Construction Date: 1876
In 2006, singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco’s successful independent music company - Righteous Babe Records opened its new headquarters in the renovated Asbury Delaware church. In addition to RBR’s business offices, the former church will house a 1,200-capacity concert hall and smaller underground club for live music performances. The complex will also include office and exhibition spaces for Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, which is renowned for its exhibitions of contemporary art, film and video screenings, and presentations of live jazz, new music, and performance.

Roycroft Inn

Architect: Not on record
Budget: $8 million
Original Construction Date: 1905
Restoration Completion: 1995
After an eight-year restoration process, the Roycroft Inn has returned to its original state and is once again considered one of the most beautiful buildings and interiors of the American Arts & Crafts movement. Situated in the heart of the historic Roycroft community in East Aurora, NY, the Inn celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse

Project Architect: Anthony Puttnam (FLW apprentice)
Budget: $5.4 million
Groundbreaking: 2007
Projection Completion: Summer 2007
The Frank Lloyd Wright Rowing Boathouse Corporation is constructing Wright’s 1905 un-built design that will serve as a functioning boathouse for the West Side Rowing Club (WSRC), the nation’s largest rowing club. The Boathouse design was included in Wright’s Wasmuth Portfolio of 1910 and in an exhibit twenty years later that featured eight of his greatest works. It was never constructed, until now.

Blue Sky Mausoleum

Project Architect: Anthony Puttnam (FLW apprentice)
Budget: $1.2 million
Project Completion: October 2004
Blue Sky Mausoleum was originally designed for Darwin D. Martin’s family. Following Wright’s plans, stone and concrete terraces and a monolithic headstone have been constructed on a hillside overlooking two ponds at Forest Lawn cemetery in Buffalo.

A City Rises Again: The Preservation Movement in Buffalo

Regret, Reflection and Reaction: The loss of the Larkin Building

A great loss can precipitate pangs of regret, moments of reflection and both considered and passionate reaction. Such was the case in Buffalo in the years after the searing and devastating loss of Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building in 1950. Although the response was not immediate, a change in the consciousness of the community had begun. This change would manifest itself in a series of battles that began in the late 1950s when the Buffalo Lighthouse faced demolition by neglect after it was abandoned by the U.S. Coast Guard. One of the oldest structures on the Great Lakes, the lighthouse, which dates from 1833, had long been regarded as a symbol of the city of Buffalo. The lighthouse was saved in 1961 by the action of a group of community-minded citizens and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.

Around this same time, one of the oldest houses in Buffalo – the George Coit House – was faced with demolition. A clapboard wood-frame house in the Federal style, the Coit House was built in 1815 – almost two decades before the incorporation of Buffalo as a city. George Coit was a prominent businessman during the region's formative days as a western outpost of the then burgeoning United States. In fact, a promissory note signed by Coit and his business partners helped to finance improvements on Buffalo's harbor and made possible Buffalo's selection as the terminus of the Erie Canal. In 1961, the house that bore his name had seen better days and was threatened with demolition by the City for a variety of building code violations. The newly formed Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier, recognizing its historical significance, stepped in and arranged for the house to be sold to a sympathetic couple that undertook its restoration.

The rescue of the Lighthouse and the Coit House marked the beginning of community activism on behalf of historic buildings in Buffalo.

Beloved Buildings: Shea's Theatre and the Guaranty are Saved

Over the course of the next two decades, a series of beloved landmarks would face peril and potential catastrophe. Although some fell victim to an urban renewal paradigm that embraced demolition as its highest virtue, many were saved through the extraordinary efforts of passionate individuals spearheading ad hoc committees.

In the mid-'70s, this scenario was enacted at Shea's Buffalo Theatre, a 3200-seat theater of real grandeur. Shea's was designed in 1926 by C.W. and George Rapp – two men widely regarded as masters of movie palace architecture -- and included an interior design from the studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany. After falling into disuse and disrepair amid changing tastes throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Shea's was surrendered to the City of Buffalo for back taxes in 1974. It almost certainly faced the wrecking ball had it not been for the intervention of a group of concerned citizens who called themselves "The Friends of the Buffalo." Through the efforts of "The Friends," the theater was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and restoration work begun. A successor organization, The Shea's-O'Connell Preservation Guild, was incorporated in 1980 and continues the work of restoring and operating the born-again venue to this day. Today, Shea's Performing Arts Center is host to hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and is the anchor of a revitalized Theatre District in downtown Buffalo.

Yet another beloved Buffalo building – Louis Sullivan's Guaranty Building – experienced a similar decline and rebirth. By the mid 1950s, the building, which dates from 1895-96, was being described as "old and dirty." In 1955, an ill-judged "modernization" project added a fiberglass exterior to the lower floors and a dropped ceiling in the lobby. Later cleaning efforts damaged the intricate terra cotta with harsh sandblasting. The decline accelerated with a fire in 1974 that damaged the interior. Occupancy dropped, and the building was sold at auction. Despite a growing appreciation for the building, and its designation in 1975 as a National Historic Landmark, by 1977 the building's out-of-town owners were planning to demolish it to make the site more marketable. Strenuous objections from preservationists, in Buffalo and around the country, thwarted the demolition plans. Civic leaders, most notably Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, secured a series of grants and loans to restore the building. By September 1982, the $12.4 million project was complete, and the officially re-named Guaranty Building again took its rightful place among Buffalo's premier office buildings.

More Parking: The Metcalfe House is Sacrificed

Another inflection point in the tale of Buffalo's preservation movement occurred in 1979 when Stanford White's Metcalfe House was sacrificed to make room for a parking lot for the employees of the Delaware North Corporation, headquartered next door in McKim, Mead and White's Williams-Butler mansion. Dating from 1884, the James Metcalfe House was built of brick and Medina sandstone and contained interior spaces of great beauty and intricate woodwork. In fact, these spaces were so extraordinary that a deal was made to meticulously dismantle the interiors in order to reassemble them as museum exhibits. Today, the Metcalfe House library and dining room can be seen at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center on the campus of Buffalo State College. The entrance hall, marble-faced fireplace, oak-paneled ceiling and latticework staircase are at home in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Although there was some solace in preserving pieces of the house, this episode became a recurring source of regret among sympathetic citizens when the corporation for whom the deed had been done moved its headquarters to a downtown location. The parking, alas, was no longer needed.

Citizen Activists: The Preservation Coalition is Born

Galvanized by this loss and the continuing disregard for Buffalo's architectural legacy, the Preservation Coalition of Erie County emerged from the ad hoc fights of the '60s and '70s as an organized and sustained force on behalf of the region's built environment. Employing marketing, public relations, public policy research and legal tactics that have become commonplace in the years since, this group of citizen activists took on New York Telephone in 1980 and won a decisive victory to preserve the corporate giant's Buffalo headquarters on Church Street.

Emboldened by this success, the group then rallied neighborhood and community support when the Connecticut Street Armory was damaged almost beyond repair in a fire in 1982. The second largest armory in New York State, the Connecticut Street Armory is a castle-like structure that makes extensive use of native Medina sandstone. Notable for its massive drill hall and beautiful carved oak staircases and woodwork, the Armory – like Shea's, the Guaranty and the Buffalo Lighthouse – was beloved by generations of Buffalonians. No one could imagine the West Side skyline without the Armory's crenellated facade. A genuine people's movement coalesced around this landmark and it was saved and returned to use as an armory and public meeting space.

The Preservation Coalition went on the offensive in the early '80s in an attempt to slow the practice of demolition and preclude future battles over the city's rich repository of buildings by lobbying on behalf of legislative protection of entire historic districts. A large swath of the city's downtown core was the first such district so designated. Christened the Joseph Ellicott Historic District in honor of the city's founder and Holland Land Company executive Joseph Ellicott, the designation made it much harder for building owners and developers to knock down buildings at will.

Broadening the Vision: Securing the Central Terminal

Along with a change in tactics in the early '80s on the part of Buffalo's preservation community came a growing recognition of the merits of vernacular architecture, the city's industrial heritage and the roadside attractions of suburbia. This change in consciousness caused the Coalition to look for members, supporters and allies in new places and to identify innovative arrangements to own and operate historic properties.

The battle to save Buffalo's historic Central Terminal illustrates this point. Abandoned by the New York Central Railroad as the Buffalo hub of its operations in the late '70s, the Art Deco terminal endured a succession of unsympathetic and avaricious owners who stripped the once grand monument of its stunning décor and ornamentation. Outraged by this flagrant plundering of a building that held a special place in the hearts of several generations of train travelers, the Preservation Coalition bought the building from the City and in turn spun off a sister organization charged with safeguarding the building until a suitable re-use could be found.

The Central Terminal Restoration Corporation has overseen the securing and partial restoration of the terminal and today it is used regularly for parties, exhibits and other special events. Towering over the residential neighborhoods of the city's East Side, the Central Terminal remains a beloved beacon and is often referred to as "Buffalo's best-loved landmark."

Fighting the Good Fight: St. Mary of Sorrows, Graycliff, and the Roycroft Inn and Campus

Many battles have been fought since the formative days of the organized preservation movement in Buffalo in the early '80s. The Cyclorama Building, originally constructed in 1888 to house a 400 foot long, 50 foot wide painting of Niagara Falls that provided an early form of mass entertainment for Buffalonians of the day, was restored and given new life as an office building. The Roycroft Inn was restored and removed from the National Trust's list of the Eleven Most Endangered Places in the United States. In 1995 the National Trust bestowed a national Preservation Honor Award on the visionary partners, including the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier and the Village of East Aurora, who saved the Inn. Today the Inn welcomes 160,000 visitors every year and the surrounding campus is the focus of a multi-year, multi-phase restoration effort on the part of the Roycroft Campus Corporation. Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff Estate, home to a group of Piarist Fathers for many years, was saved from demolition through the grassroots initiative of a group of concerned citizens who continue to oversee its restoration and revival as a house museum. The magnificent St. Mary of Sorrows Church found new life as the King Urban Life Center, home to a charter school, pre-school program and technology center for an underserved and at risk neighborhood population. Buffalo's Old Post Office has been converted to use as the downtown campus of Erie Community College.

Other Voices: Hamlin Park and the Michigan Avenue Heritage Corridor

Other voices emerged throughout the 1990s representing neighborhoods, cultures and constituencies that had previously not had a seat at the preservation table in Buffalo. Hamlin Park, a predominantly African-American neighborhood on the city's near East Side, was granted historic district status, becoming the largest such district in the region. An effort to preserve and restore the Michigan Street Baptist Church, the oldest continuously-operated African-American Church in Buffalo, as well as the nearby Nash House and its trove of papers, mementos and documents from the Civil Rights era resulted in the creation of the Michigan Avenue Heritage Corridor. The Heritage Corridor links the Church and Nash House as well as the Colored Musicians Club, a home and refuge for local and visiting jazz musicians for more than 70 years. In linking these historic sites, the Corridor attempts to commemorate the role the Underground Railroad, the Civil Rights Movement and Jazz played in shaping the American experience.

Frederick Law Olmsted on Buffalo: "The Best Designed City in the Country"

In the late 1800s, visionary citizens brought Frederick Law Olmsted to Buffalo. It was here that Olmsted, inspired by Joseph Ellicott's radial street layout, designed his first system of parks and parkways, and proclaimed Buffalo to be "the best designed city in the country, if not the world." During the 1901 Pan American Exposition, Buffalo was celebrated not only as the City of Light, but the City of Trees.

His system of parks and parkways in Buffalo was the first of its kind in the nation and represents one of his largest bodies of work. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the System consists of six major parks, their connecting parkways and circles, and several smaller spaces. Today, it comprises 75 percent of the city's parkland.

The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy is a not-for-profit, membership-based, community organization that began as the Friends of the Olmsted Parks in 1978. Formed as an advocacy organization, the Conservancy became the first not-for-profit organization in the nation to manage a park system in July 2004 when it entered into an agreement with the City of Buffalo and the County of Erie to manage the Olmsted system.

In 2000 the Conservancy defended Front Park and Porter Avenue from an encroaching transportation project. In 2003, it successfully advocated that the Scajaquada Expressway be replaced with a calmer, more beautiful parkway. In 2004, it explained the value of implementing a revolutionary urban parks management plan that is now in place. Victories like these and the overall improvement of the state of the Olmsted Parks and Parkways system are among Buffalo's proudest preservation achievements.

Re-defining Preservation: New Partners Emerge

The preservation movement continues to evolve in new and sometimes unexpected ways in Buffalo. Groups have emerged that address a variety of concerns that re-define "preservation" in a sometimes broad and far reaching manner, while others limit their definition to a narrow scope, asset type or neighborhood. Affordable housing, neighborhood aesthetics, heritage assets, small business development, and a variety of quality of life issues all fall under this emerging definition. The Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Culture and Architecture, as its name suggests, concerns itself with a wide range of issues, including planning, zoning, neighborhood development and protecting heritage assets. The New Millennium Group is comprised of citizens originally engaged by the issue of the construction of a signature bridge over the Niagara River and its impact on a nearby West Side neighborhood, but whose focus now extends to the subjects of smart growth, government consolidation and public transportation. This group of volunteers has also spent thousands of hours researching and writing Walk Buffalo, a self-guided walking tour of downtown Buffalo's architecture. The Industrial Heritage Committee limits its purview to the city's grain elevators and waterfront heritage. The Elmwood Village Association, Allentown Association, Kleinhans Association, Grant-Ferry Association and other like-minded community groups share many of the concerns of the traditional preservation movement as well as an economic development agenda. Revitalize Buffalo is comprised of a group of young professionals determined to help build a "smarter, cooler" Buffalo inspired in part by New Urbanist planning principles and Richard Florida's "Creative Class" theories. Each of these organizations contributes to a passionate and often contentious conversation about the future of our community.

Re-born in Buffalo: The Martin House Complex

Among the highest profile and broadly embraced preservation initiatives in recent years has been the effort to restore and reconstruct Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House Complex of 1905-07. Considered by many scholars to be the finest example extant of his "Prairie Style," the Martin House fell into disrepair after Darwin Martin's death in 1935. His family was unable to maintain the property and abandoned it in 1937. For 17 years it stood vacant and suffered extensive damage from vandalism and weather. Although an architect purchased it in 1954, ostensibly saving it from imminent demolition, historic elements in the main House were altered and the pergola, conservatory and carriage house were demolished in 1962. No other Wright site has withstood such extensive degradation and remained standing.

In 1967, the Martin House was purchased by the University at Buffalo to serve as the university president's home. The University's ownership gave the Martin House a scholarly persona as it served as a Center for Canadian/American Studies, the University Archives and as headquarters for the University's Alumni Association.

The Martin House Restoration Corporation was incorporated in 1992 with a clearly focused mandate to restore this National Historic Landmark, rebuild the missing elements, restore the gardens and grounds and open the complex to the world as a historic house museum. Restoration seemed to be a daunting project, given the condition of the site. The community, three levels of government, many local foundations, and corporate leaders, rallied around the fundraising effort to restore the Martin House. While the roof was restored in 1998, active restoration of the Martin House did not begin in earnest until 2003. Rebuilding of the long lost pergola, conservatory and carriage house was completed in Fall 2006, along with substantial restoration of the Martin House to its condition as of 1907, when the Martin family was firmly in residence.

This $40 million dollar restoration is a testament to the importance of this complex – the only residential complex designed by Wright in the course of his 70-year career – and a tribute to the passion that Buffalo has summoned to resuscitate this once dying beauty. With the missing buildings back in place, the restoration of the Martin House, including the re-installation or recreation of 394 pieces of art-glass, continues.

A Righteous Restoration: Ani DiFranco's Church Project

Other notable preservation success stories include the former Asbury Delaware Methodist Church. This downtown landmark dating from 1871 was saved from almost certain demolition by the vision and passion of Buffalo-born singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco. DiFranco and business partner Scot Fisher stepped in after fixtures and furnishings had been removed from the church and its steeple had begun to crumble and pose a hazard to passersby, necessitating the closure of the surrounding sidewalk. Extensive structural repairs to the interior and exterior and an interior renovation have transformed this 19th Century house of worship into a 21st Century arts complex, home to Righteous Babe Records, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and a 1200-person performing arts hall. The Church, as it is now called, represents an innovative public-private preservation partnership of the first rank.

Saving the Gateway to the West: The Erie Canal Harbor

Another signature success of the preservation movement can be found along the city's waterfront at what is now known as Erie Canal Harbor. The redevelopment plan originally proposed for the site by New York State was unsympathetic to the historic nature of the property. A generic esplanade and marina was planned on ground that was once home to the city's Canal District and Central Wharf. Here was the original terminus of Erie Canal -- the Commercial Slip that connected the historic waterway to the Buffalo River, Lake Erie and the American heartland. Provoked by the State's disregard for the historic significance of the site, the Preservation community rallied opposition to the plan, convening a series of "Community Conversations" that eventually turned the public against the plan and convinced local and state elected officials to rescind their support in favor of a history-oriented program.

In Fall 2007 the Erie Canal Harbor project will welcome the first visitors to the historically significant waterfront that includes excavation of the ruins of the Canal District as well public space reconstructed on the footprints of historic buildings, recreation of original bridge designs and streets repaved with street cobblestones from the 1800s. The site will feature interpretive elements to educate visitors about the original Canal and how it helped shape the course of American history.

A Towering Challenge: Restoring the Richardson Complex

Among the greatest challenges facing the Buffalo preservation community is the fate of the Buffalo State Hospital, a long dormant state-run asylum that served thousands of mentally ill patients for nearly a century. Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the complex has severely deteriorated since patients were moved into more modern facilities in the mid-1970s. The massive Richardson Complex, as it is now known, is highlighted by twin Gothic towers that rise above the city's Elmwood Village. Built between 1870 and 1896, the Complex was Richardson's first major commission and the first example of the style that came to be known as Richardson Romanesque. Buffalo's preservationists have long decried New York State's disregard for the facility and have waged an ongoing legal battle to force the State to maintain and restore this American treasure.

After years of fits and starts, the long-stalled renovation appears to be ready to commence with the allocation of $76 million in State funding and the naming of a board to oversee the project. In addition to the renovation board, a companion board has been appointed to create a Buffalo architecture center in one of the Richardson Complex's tower buildings. The architecture center is intended to serve as an interpretive center for the region's numerous architecture attractions and as a visitors center for cultural tourists of all kinds. Taken in its entirety, the restoration of the Richardson Complex would represent the culmination of nearly 50 years of preservation activity in the Buffalo region. It would provide a capstone to the dreams and aspirations of several generations of Buffalonians.

Going Mainstream: Adaptive Re-use and the Re-birth of Downtown

Long considered by many to be the province of romantics and an impediment to progress, the preservation movement in Buffalo today has been embraced by a significant portion of the city's establishment. Philanthropic organizations such as the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, the John R. Oishei Foundation and the Baird Foundation are among the most noteworthy supporters of restoration projects such as the Roycroft Inn, the Graycliff Estate, the Martin House, Hull House, the Nash House and Old Fort Niagara. The Buffalo News has become a champion of Buffalo's architecture. The paper's publisher is a key financial supporter of the Martin House and the chairman of the newly-formed Richardson Complex board. The region's tourism promotion agency, the Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau, is aggressively marketing Buffalo as an architecture tourism and American heritage destination. Even business interests who once cast a scornful eye on historic districts and preservation projects have adopted the use of historic tax credits and begun aggressively transforming a variety of former departments stores, warehouses, manufacturing plants and churches into commercial and residential space. Twenty-somethings and empty-nesters alike are returning to the city's core. Businesses that once fled to the suburbs are doing the same. The wheel, it seems, has begun to turn thanks in no small part to the vision, determination and commitment of Buffalo's preservation community.