Buffalo's arts and architecture continues on a hot streak of being celebrated by the national media with this morning's article titled, "Buffalo's Wright Stuff" in The Wall Street Journal. The Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau assisted journalist Richard Woodward during his two-day visit in late March.
The article chronicles the colorful history of Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House Complex and the Martin family. The piece also goes on to conclude "With a park system by Frederick Law Olmsted, Louis Sullivan's Guaranty Building, a concert hall by Eero Saarinen, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the new Burchfield-Penny Art Center (sic), Buffalo's citizens already have a lot to be proud of."
This article appears on the heels of three positive, high-profile articles on Buffalo in the past seven days. Late last week, the New York Post and Time-Out New York profiled Buffalo as a summer get-away location. On Sunday, The New York Times Style Magazine "T" featured Buffalo alongside Venice, Manchester, England and Austria, in the magazine's surveys of the global artistic landscape. The Times Style magazine proclaims, "It may just now be getting buzz as a center for creative types, but Buffalo has been on the radar of art aficionados for decades." As if that wasn't enough, Newsweek magazine profiled Frank Lloyd Wright's work in Buffalo in a two-page story titled, "The Goodbye Swirl".
As
the saying goes, "Success has many fathers". The Buffalo Niagara Convention
& Visitors Bureau, as well as other marketing organizations throughout Erie
County quietly work behind the scenes in trying to secure positive publicity for
the region. Sometimes it can take years for a story or idea to be "sold" to an
editor or producer. In the case of The Wall Street Journal article, it was a two-year process of constant communications with the Journal's editors, and good
timing, that brought the reporter to town - ultimately resulting in a big
score for Buffalo.
The Wall Street Journal is far superior to the NYTimes but Im glad that their both doing such positive media layouts for Buffalo...especially now tht High Speed Rail will soon be an option for downstaters to plan weekend vacations...soon Buffalo could be an option from Grand Central to Central Terminal.
But that is what we have now! Soon we will have:
1) An expanded Albright Knox
2) A renovated Richardson (which I think will be a conference center for Buffalo State, Medaille, Canisius, D'Youville and the Culturals)...maybe with the Richardson the Albright can use its auditorium for actual display space.
3) a renovated Erie Canal Wharf District.
But Buffalo must go further to leverage its arts and culture:
1) We must put back the lions on the Scajaquada Bridge
2) We should rebuild the Pan Am Gateways at LaSalle Park
3) We should rebuild a replical of LaSalles Griffin and Adm Perrys Warship from 1812, the Battle of Lake Erie and the Burning of Buffalo.
4) We should rebuild a Barge and offer cruises in Buffalo, Tonawanda and Lockport like Rochester
5) We need to get that Maritime Museum going
6) We need to get that NICOLA TESLA Museum going which would be the only one in the world and we have more right than any metro area. Buffalo Niagara is where AC beat DC in the battle of the Titans!
7) We need a new 450k sqft Convention and Conference Center.
8) The Larkin Administration Building must be rebuilt to complete the Martin, Larkin and Wright relationship.
Buffalo historically is on par with a Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago but only part of Buffalos book is available. We must make every effort for visitors and locals to experience the entire book.
Last word: Buffalo is a city of transportion, communication (voice and data), energy, medicine, education, government, industry and the arts. Hopefully Yahoo will choose to locate in Niagara County...and thus compliment Buffalo Niagara. HOWEVER THIS IS A PERFECT LESSON TO SAY THAT MORE EFFORT NEEDS TO BE MADE FOR DEVELOPABLE SITES WITHIN OUR URBAN AREAS!
Even if high speed rail does come to NYS, do you really expect people in NYC to come visit Buffalo in droves???? I doubt it. Almost as ridiculous as your comment that Buffalo is on par with Philadelphia and Boston historically. Are you serious?? Buffalo wasn't even incorporated as a city until the 1830s. That is 200 years of history that those places have over Buffalo. Not to mention Independence hall, Bunker Hill, etc. etc. Buffalo has some Pan Am expo that had temporary structures and the Erie canal. That's "on-par?"
Not on par, better.