GreaterBuffaloBlog

2008 Open-Air Autobus tours start Memorial Day Weekend!

2008 marks the first full year of The Campaign for Greater Buffalo's Open-Air Autobus tours of Buffalo history and architecture. The bus was a hit from Day One with both riders and people in the streets.

You'll get commentary from the experts in architecture and historic preservation, conveyed in a memorable way. There is really no better way to see the city, and we have hosted not only individuals, but block clubs, classes, alumni groups, and others who find it a great shared experience.
 

Most tours are $20, and only $10 for children 12 and under. You learn a lot, and have a lot of fun. (We can schedule a special time for your group of 30 or more)

CALL 716-854-3749 FOR LATEST INFO OR TO RESERVE TODAY.

We strongly recommend reservations, and accept MasterCard and Visa.

Download 2008_tours.pdf

Buffalo: The Whirlwind Tour
Give us 2 hours and we’ll give you the whirl
10:00am, Sat. May 24, Sun. June 1, Sun. June 14
6:30pm, Thur. and Fri. June 19-July 25
6:00pm, Thur. and Fri. July 31-Aug 29; Fri Sept. 5 & 12
10:00am, Sun. Sept. 7 and Sun. Sept 21
2-hr. tour, $20. Meet at Bidwell Pkwy. @ Elmwood Ave.

Pound for pound, Buffalo is one of the most architecturally interesting cities in the country. Population-wise, Buffalo is squarely in the middle of the pack, yet, because of historical circumstance, it has an architectural richness unmatched by any city its size and by many much larger.  Louis Sullivan’s Guaranty Building and the soaring Art Deco mass of City Hall are just two highlights of 150 years of local history and architectural styles. You’ll see scores of beautiful buildings and houses by prominent national and international architects. Skyscrapers, music halls, parkways—you’ll see why it is hard not to brag about Buffalo’s architecture.

Some other notable buildings on the tour are the 1876 City & County Hall, Daniel Burnham’s Ellicott Square, and Richard Upjohn’s St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, and significant buildings by H.H. Richardson, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the parkways of Frederick Law Olmsted. There is pre-tour pickup and post-tour dropoff at downtown hotels.

Snap, Crackle & Pop: Art Deco in Buffalo
10:00am, Sat. June 7, Sat. July 12, Sat. Sept. 6. 3-hr. tour. $25. Meet at Bidwell Parkway & Elmwood Ave.

New this year, the Art Deco Buffalo tour looks at well-known and overlooked buildings in this wildly popular architectural style. Art Deco took the nation by storm in the Twenties, and Buffalo is witness to the fact that anything that could be built, was built in Art Deco, from city halls to train stations, apartment buildings, highway piers and bridge abutments.
Art Deco and its related styles have been called a lot of things— Futuristic, Jazz Style, Art Moderne, Streamline Style, Skyscraper Style, Populuxe— but everyone agrees it crackles with electricity. Not to be outdone, we’ll also look at Vestigial Deco, Neo Deco, and Deco-dence.

Styles of Buffalo
10:00 am, Sun. June 15, July 5; & Aug. 17, Sat. Sept. 13. 2-hr. tour. Meet at Elmwood Ave. at Bidwell Pkwy.

The 40-year period from 1860 to 1900 can be described as the Buffalo’s Golden Age. In 1880 Buffalo was the thirteenth largest city in a country of exploding cities. In 1900, it was number 8, its wealth and power at its peak. Buffalo’s elite hired the best architects for their houses, office buildings, and churches. We even sent our mayor — Grover Cleveland —to the White House. Twice.

Titans of commerce, legions of laborers, and masses of managers all had to live somewhere, so Buffalo’s housing stock of this period, and extending through World War I, is rich at all levels and styles. On this tour you’ll see the good life as it is lived in middle class Buffalo. Ashland, Norwood, Lexinton, Highland, Summit, Woodward, Fordham and more: The streets are tree-lined, the houses capacious and welcoming, the llawns lush and gardens grand. You’ll come away with more ideas and “best practices” than a whole rack of shelter magazines, as well as an understanding of the architectural history of housing as it unfolded in the American city.

The Historic Harbor Land Cruise
10:00am, Sun. June 8, Fri. July 4, Sat. Aug. 23, and Sat. Sept. 20. 3-hr tour. Meet at The Hatch, Erie Basin.
Travel through a panorama of waterfront history with Tim Tielman, author of Buffalo’s Waterfront. A panorama of waterfront history. from the newly restored terminus of the Erie Canal, to the soaring grain elevators that are the foundation of Modern Architecture itself, all along the streets once thronged by immigrants, sailors and ruffians, Grover Cleveland, and the “saloon boss” of bosses, Fingy Connors.

Seeking Salvation: Endangered Churches of Buffalo
10:00am, Sat. May 31, June 28, Aug. 16, & Sept. 27.
3-hr. tour, $25. Meet at Elmwood and Summer. Includes a rest stop.
They are the landmarks of our daily lives, whether we are believers or not: neighborhood churches. With their convents, rectories, schools, and social halls, Buffalo churches pin us to the land. What if they disappeared? We’ll explore the ramifications, and also look at some successful adaptations.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Buffalo
10:00 am, Sun. May 25, Sun. July 6, Sat. Aug. 9, and Sun. Sept. 14. 2-hr tour, $20. Meet at Elmwood Ave. at Bidwell Pkwy.

Buffalo is noted worldwide for its role in the career of Frank Lloyd Wright. See all of Buffalo houses, as well as two recently built designs for a magnificent boathouse (originally designed for Wisconsin) and an open-air mausoleum.

Grover Cleveland's Buffalo
10:00am, Sun. June 22, Sat. July 19. 2-hr. tour, $20. Meet at @ Bidwell & Elmwood
Grover Cleveland went from being mayor of Buffalo to President of the United States in three years. Explore the foundations of his rocketing rise, from the place he stepped off a canal boat as a youth, the sites of his bachelor adventures, and the beer that made Cleveland famous.

The Historic Niagara River
10:00am, Sat. June 21, Sun. July 13, and Sun. Aug. 10. 2-hr. tour. $20. Meet at Niagara St. and Porter Ave. 
Nearly 200 years ago, the tiny but promising villages of Buffalo and Black Rock, located at the head of upper Great Lakes navigation, but also on the American frontier across the Niagara River from the Canadian dominions of the British Empire, found themselves in the middle of a continental war. Buffalo was burnt to the ground, and Black Rock was the site of numerous skirmishes, fortifications, and naval activity. Join us as we peel back the layers of time and espy the Niagara Frontier as it was seen by Lt. Jesse Elliott, the first naval hero of the war to receive a Congressional medal, for his daring nighttime raid to capture two British warships on the Fort Erie shore.  

From there, we go to 1825 and the completion of the the Erie Canal and the development of Buffalo, including the beautiful and threatened neighborhood of Prospect Hill. You'll also see some beautiful but seldom sought-out vantage points from which to behold the beauty and power of the river itself.

The Architectural and Industrial Heritage of Black Rock and Riverside
10:00am, Sun. June 29 and Sat. Aug. 30. 2-hr. tour. $20. Meet at Bidwell Parkway & Elmwood Ave.
Black Rock has the largest concentration of 1850’s houses in the city, while Riverside has an industrial legacy that has attracted art historians for decades. Two intriguing neighborhoods, too little known!

Nativity Church to Light Up Its Stained Glass Windows for Holy Week, March 16-23

Beginning Palm Sunday, March 16, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., and continuing each night of the Catholic Holy Week, parishioners, friends of Nativity and the general public are invited to view the spectacular stained glass windows of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, corner of Albany and Herkimer Streets on Buffalo's West Side. It is of interest to preservationists for two reasons. First, the opportunity to see the architecture lighted from within in a kind of reverse image, and then through the stained art glass. Second, to see first hand the quality of one of the many churches the Diocese of Buffalo is discussing closing.

The windows will be lighted from within the Church, allowing them to be viewed during a leisurely stroll around the Church or from one's vehicle. Neighborhood residents can enjoy them simply by walking by on an errand or looking out the livingroom window.

Each window is a gem of stained glass artistry depicting a biblical scene from the Gospels. All are welcome to stop for as long as one would like to meditate on these beautiful works as well as to take in the beauty of Nativity Church, which dominates the open triangle of land where Albany, Hampshire, and Normal streets come together.

Nativity Church, which serves the Buffalo's central West Side, was dedicated in 1903. It was designed by Albert Post in the Neo-Gothic style and rendered in Medina sandstone.  Gothic architecture is best known for the architectural innovation of the pointed arch, which made it possible to place many windows in otherwise heavy stone buildings, suffusing the interiors with light. Windows changed from very simple openings to rich designs filled with stained glass.

The windows of the nave were often used to illustrate biblical scenes. The windows were commonly paid for by individual parishioners as a permanent memorial to a loved one. Such is the case at Nativity, with perhaps the most famous one being that donated by William J. "Fingy" Connors in memory of his father, Peter. (illustration, left) Connors rose from being a teen-aged orphan in the Old First Ward to controlling 40,000 dockworkers on the Great Lakes, being the owner of the Buffalo Courier Express and the chairman of the New York State Democratic party around the time Nativity Church was erected. The Connors Memorial Window can be seen on the west elevation, along a walkway between the church and the convent.

The south elevation, or Albany Street side, is dominated by a three-part Gothic window with geometric stained glass designs. These can be seen to great advantage from the open space across the street. Similar stained glass adorns the apse, best seen from Herkimer street near the rectory.

The lighting of the windows is designed to share the beauty of the church with those who have not seen them from the inside, during the most sacred period of the Catholic calendar. Rev. Angelo Chimera sees the lighting as transforming the church into a colorful beacon of hope and the beginning of a tradition.

Save Our Churches, Save Our Neighborhoods Brainstorming Session is a Font of Ideas

Over 125 people attended The Campaign for Greater Buffalo's initial meeting of its Save Our Churches, Save Our Neighborhoods campaign. The goal was to provide background of the Buffalo Diocese's plan to close up to 60 parishes, the fate of previously closed churches, and to gather ideas for action. Buffalo Common Council President David Franczyk and North District Councilmember Joseph Golombek, Jr. made eloquent presentations. It was a success on all counts.

Continue reading "Save Our Churches, Save Our Neighborhoods Brainstorming Session is a Font of Ideas"

Take Me to the River: How Buffalo Can Get Rid of its Waterfront Barrier and Achieve Widescale Preservation and Recreation-based Development

If there is one thing we can do for ourselves and our children and our children’s children, it would be to rid ourselves of the cursed and thoroughly damned Thruway along the Niagara River. Blocks of historic houses in Black Rock, Riverside, and the West Side are being consumed by disinvestment. Whole neighborhoods are at risk. Preservationists, environmentalists, neighborhood activists, and just plain residents would find common cause in this issue. [This article, as it appeared, with illustrations, in the Winter 2006 issue of our newspaper, Greater Buffalo, is available by clicking on the link that follows.]

Download demo_tway_sheet.pdf

Sure, it has been discussed before, even studied. But it always has been with the understanding that the Niagara Section of the Thruway would merely be moved and supersized to modern standards (i.e., a 70 mph design speed and infrequent but huge interchanges). That is not what we need. We need it gone, and a boulevard-like road replacing it.

There is now also some urgency to the question, for the long-running debate about whether and where to build another international bridge is coming to a head in the Final Environmental Impact Statement stage. The Campaign for Greater Buffalo supports a low-level lift bridge between the historic communities of Black Rock in the U.S. and Bridgeburg in Canada. A high-level bridge and its attendant ramps connecting to the Thruway would insure the continued existence of the Thruway and the decline of the neighborhoods it goes through.

Continue reading "Take Me to the River: How Buffalo Can Get Rid of its Waterfront Barrier and Achieve Widescale Preservation and Recreation-based Development"

National Trust Urges Buffalo to Reject Bass Pro

National Trust for Historic Preservation President Richard Moe, fresh from a visit to Buffalo in late June, has written Mayor Byron Brown, urging him reject a proposal for a Bass Pro megastore that would on the site of the historic Central Wharf. The wharf is part of Buffalo’s historic Canal District, the infrastructure of which was slated to have been completely reconstructed by this fall. A new Naval Museum, bowstring truss bridge, and a re-watered Commercial Slip have been completed, but all other work on the site, including a network of stone streets and a public park on Central Wharf, has been halted by state officials because of the Bass Pro proposal.

The National Trust joins a lengthening list of organizations voicing their opposition to Bass Pro and urging completion of the project as planned. The organizations include The Campaign for Greater Buffalo, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, The Preservation Coalition of Erie County, The Niagara Frontier Chapter of The Sierra Club, The League of Women Voters, and Voice Buffalo, a network of religious organizations.

In his June 13 letter, Moe praises the city’s “rich and diverse historic character,” and preservation-based development, which he saw as an invited guest of civic leaders hoping to snare the National Trust Annual Conference for 2011. The city is competing with Philadelphia and Hartford, with the National Trust expected to announce a site in October. Moe state’s that it is the Trust’s understanding that the heritage-based plan was “guiding the redevelopment until Bass Pro demanded the site right on the district’s waterfront,” and that the Trust does “not believe that the City should allow Bass Pro to consume such a critical and sensitive piece of waterfront property...Because it is totally out of keeping with the scale of and vision for the Erie Canal Harbor District, the proposal would needlessly defeat the great work underway to revitalize Buffalo’s waterfront, and the hopeful, inclusive planning process that preceded it.”

The Campaign for Greater Buffalo, which has led the fight to protect the Canal District and complete the 2004 Master Plan for the site, is grateful for the Trust’s support. “This affirms the national importance of the site and the interest of people far beyond Buffalo in the welfare of our part of the national heritage. The Trust’s slogan is “Protecting the Irreplaceable,” and that is certainly what we ought to do here,” says Campaign President Paul McDonnell.

Ride the magical Open-Air Autobus!

Download 2007_openair_tours.pdf

The Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture has launched its long-awaited open-air tour bus service.

The Campaign received a challenge grant from the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation in 2005. Contributions from Campaign members, The Rupp Foundation, and The Baird Foundation met the match.

The bus, dubbed the Open-Air Autobus and painted in 1920’s-style green and cream livery, will be the first open air bus to ever operate in Buffalo. Riders will not only enjoy the ride itself, but will have 360-degree views all around the rolling platform, greatly aiding in the architectectural and historical appreciation that is the focus of the Campaign’s tours.

Tickets for the tours are $20 for the general public, $16 for Campaign for Buffalo members. Reservations are recommended, but walk-ups welcome, space permitting. Info and reservations: 854-3749 or OpenAirBuffalo.org.

Concerned about the Bass Pro/Benderson Proposal for Buffalo's Canal District? Here's who to write.

Letters count a lot more than emails or faxes. Write away!

The Buffalo News: Everybody’s Column, The Buffalo News, 1 News Plaza, Buffalo, NY 14240. Let the public know what you think!

Governor Elliot Spitzer via Laura Monte, Department of State, 65 Court St., Buffalo, NY 14202. ECHDC is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), a state agency. The governor controls the boards of both.

Senator Chuck Schumer, 130 S. Elmwood Ave., #660, Buffalo, NY 14202. A lot of federal money and federal approvals are involved.

Congressman Brian Higgins, 726 Exchange St. #601, Buffalo, NY 14210. Biggest public advocate of Bass Pro proposal.

Mayor Byron Brown, 201 City Hall, Buffalo, NY 14202. Nothing bad happens UNLESS Mayor & Council transfer Canal District to ECHDC. Tell the mayor and council that should not happen.

The Buffalo Common Council, c/o City Clerk, 1308 City Hall, Buffalo, NY 14202. See above.

Bass Pro owner Johnny Morris, 2500 E Kearney, Springfield MO 65803-5048. Tell him Bass Pro is not welcome in Canal District.

Proposed Bass Pro/Benderson adds up to over $130,000,000. Here's proof.

There is a lot of blather, froth, disinformation, wishful thinking, and a willing suspension of disbelief among local politicians and the small but powerful coterie that constitutes Buffalo's real estate/industrial complex about the supposed benefits of destroying the historic site of the Canal District and its future potential for a shopping center anchored by a Bass Pro. Let the truth set you free. Read the entire "Pre Development Agreement" (hype for the more prosaic Memorandum of Understanding; this is the second such MOU signed by Bass Pro and the Erie Canal Harbor Corporation). It is a fascinating look at the classic spoils system updated to the 21st century.

Click on the link below to download this second MOU between the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC - a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation, ESDC), big box category killer Bass Pro, and Benderson Development.  The dream of the Canal District becoming a real neighborhood again, embodied in the "People's Plan" of 2004 and being built now, would be forever dashed. The People's Plan, subject of a post below, can be downloaded there.

Download bass_probenderson_pda.pdf

Buffalo Must Not Sacrifice Its Rich Inheritance in Canal District

By Roy Mann, Senior Principal of The RiverStudio, author of the Erie Canal Heritage Waterfront Feasibility Study and Plan of 2000. This article appeared in slightly different form in The Buffalo News.

Big cities make big mistakes; great cities make few of them. That’s why they’re great – and stay that way.

The Bass Pro development plan is a grave error, based apparently on a conviction that sales tax revenue and the prestige of a national sports goods store will more than compensate for the loss of the treasures of the historic waterfront. Visions of public enjoyment of a transformed Central Wharf have been painted in rosy swatches. Intentions of homage to the city’s significant historic past have been warmly recited.

The problem is that the Bass Pro building and parking ramp will deaden the area, rather than enliven it. Retail stores close typically at 9:00 in the evening. Their storefronts and sides, particularly with big-box entities – where ground level street-edge floor areas are too valuable for the company to lease out to restaurants and such that cater to street pedestrian traffic – turn lifeless and discourage pedestrian circulation and interest. Parking structures, visible from and adjacent to the street, are even more detrimental. Not only are people disinterested in reaching restaurants, entertainment venues, and other evening offerings overshadowed by such realities, investors shy away from opening public-dependent businesses in their vicinities. Evening entertainment – which begins to live and breath at nine – has little chance at thriving.

Continue reading "Buffalo Must Not Sacrifice Its Rich Inheritance in Canal District"

"People's Plan" for Buffalo's Canal District Wins International Award

The Final Master Plan for the Erie Canal Harbor Project, the "People's Plan" resulting from the input of dozens of civic organizations and hundreds of individuals at a series of public meetings and comment periods, itself the result of a lawsuit that sought meaningful public input, has won the prestigous Planning Honor Award from the international Waterfront Center at its 19th Annual “Excellence on the Waterfront” program competition. The Master Plan is available for viewing and download in an earlier post.

Ironically, a new ESD subsidiary, The Empire State Development Corporation (ECHDC) has repudiated the "People's Plan" and is seeking a clawback, taking over the site both philosphically and financially. We are back to the site as a mere cookie-cutter shopping destination to benefit established community powers.

Here is an excerpt from the Empire State Development Corporations press release issued at the time the award was issued. :

“This award is something all of New York State can be proud of.  The Erie Canal Harbor Project has been recognized for its exciting vision for the future of Western New York as well for its outstanding design,” Empire State Development Chairman Charles A. Gargano said.  “Receiving the “Planning Honor Award” confirms what we have long known:  Governor Pataki’s leadership is moving New York State towards a better and brighter future by embarking on projects that will make our state an even greater place to live, work and visit.”

The project was submitted for consideration by Peter Flynn of Flynn Battaglia Architects PC, and Thomas Blanchard, Director of Research & Planning for the Western New York office of Empire State Development Corporation, and was selected from a field of 74 entries from across the world.  With the Planning Honor Award, the Erie Canal Harbor Project joins other category award winning projects and communities like the Wuxi Li Lakefront Design in the Jiangsu Province in China, the Walsh Bay Project in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and the Silvertown Quays Master Plan in London.

Continue reading ""People's Plan" for Buffalo's Canal District Wins International Award"