City October 4, 2012 11:21 AM

Buffalo is getting a cultural recharge

Buffalo is getting a cultural recharge
queenseyes
queenseyes 25
If you think about it, the Martin House is quite possibly synonymous with Buffalo's rebirth. At least in the eyes of national media. Every time this city gets any sort of national press, it's usually somehow related to progress at the Martin House. Whether it's the new Toshiko Mori designed visitors' center or another stained glass element being restored, or work on the Gardener's Cottage, or the completion of the impressive pergola... it seems as if the timeline of Buffalo's turnaround is mirrored by that of the progress of this symbolic complex. Not to say that when the Martin House is fully restored, Buffalo will be fully recovered... it's almost as if national media looks to that project more than any other as a litmus test to see if the city will indeed pull off a recovery that many thought would never happen. The Martin House narrowly escaped the wrecking ball and is making a remarkable recovery, albeit not as fast as some people would like, but the ongoing investment has managed to capture the imagination of people from around the world. Sounds a bit like Buffalo these days. 

Bloomberg has just published a nice article on Buffalo, the FLW houses, and the city's rebirth. It's a great read, and will hopefully be fueled by the social media networks. An excerpt from Bloomberg : "Rescued Wright House for Soap King Crowns Buffalo Rebirth"...

I first visited the Martin house nearly 20 years ago, when it was beginning its facelift. News that the work was finally nearing completion and that the house had opened to the public brought me back to Buffalo, which is also dusting itself off after a few sad decades.

"You get a sense of a city on the move," I was told by native son A. R. Gurney, author of "The Dining Room" and other celebrated plays. "For young people there is a lot of life, lots of little theaters all over town are doing exciting work now."
This was a prosperous port city at the turn of the 19th century, a commercial gateway between the East Coast and the Midwest.

Central Park visionary Frederick Law Olmsted designed gracefully landscaped parks, boulevards and circles. Street lighting came early to the city with enterprising use of hydro- electric power courtesy of Niagara Falls.

Now Buffalo is getting a cultural recharge. 

(Also see video Buffalo: For Real)

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Peter Burakowski
October 4, 2012 12:29 PM
Peter Burakowski

Visit Buffalo Niagara hosted the writer of this story over the summer. As always, thanks to everyone who helped show off our city to him.

Here's a link to the full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-02/rescued-wright-house-for-soap-king-crowns-buffalo-rebirth.html

Peter Burakowski
Communications Manager
Visit Buffalo Niagara

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grad94
October 4, 2012 12:38 PM
grad94

i think you're right that the martin house is a stand-in for buffalo's rebirth. the national media might not get why the preservation tax credit program matters, or why we're doing the forthcoming green code or that we just established a huge new national register district, but they do get frank lloyd wright.

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flyguy
October 4, 2012 1:43 PM
flyguy

What will a Buffalo recovery look like in hindsight? What will be the full scale of the recovery? City and regional population gains? Large scale gains or small? Growth pressures and resistance to that growth and "come here's"? Will Buffalo one day fight against the turnaround it has been seeking because the turnaround changes the look and feel of the place? Interesting to ponder. Recovery has its own set of challenges opposite that of decline.

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Travelrrr
October 4, 2012 3:31 PM
Travelrrr

I think about that often. What if (or when) Buffalo starts to see real congestion, real estate prices that are more in par with the national scale, etc. To date, the people have driven this renaissance--do we have a progressive leadership in place to handle issues such as planning, transportation, etc?

I know a lot of people complain about the expense of the DMH--it has been costly, but this press, alone, shows how it can be a good investment. What I'd like to see, however, is more cross pollination from the DMH and other major sites (AKAG, etc.), which receive the bulk of the press, with some of the smaller, lesser-known sites (churches, etc.) An out-of-towner recently told me that they visited the DMH, but received no information on other FLW properties in the area. That is a huge lost opportunity in my book.

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whatever
October 4, 2012 4:25 PM
whatever

I'm curious, if it's okay to ask (trav, or flyguy, or anybody) - very roughly how many residents would cause what's considered 'real congestion'?

Although anything's possible ... even if Buffalo added 10% population growth (which there's no sign to date of any actual pop growth, only slower shrink), then it would be back to around the number of residents it had in 2000.
And if it added 20% pop growth, which would sound pretty amazing for a Great Lakes city, it would even then have still fewer than the amount of residents it had in 1990.

Was Buffalo considered to have 'real congestion' during the 1990-2000 era?
Just asking.

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Travelrrr
October 4, 2012 4:32 PM
Travelrrr

I don't think Buffalo has had "real congestion" in 60 years.

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replied to whatever
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LouisTully
October 4, 2012 5:32 PM
LouisTully

Are we talking road congestion? I recall an article in the Buffalo News talking about how even with the shrinking population commute times have gone up and road congestion has increased.

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grad94
October 4, 2012 6:06 PM
grad94

that might be because the other wright houses, apart from greycliff, are private residences.

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Rand503
October 4, 2012 7:20 PM
Rand503

There are several semipublic Wright structures in Buffalo: The new boathouse, the mauseoleum, and the gas station, when completed. There are two public houses, the Darwin Martin House and Graycliff. There are two private houses, but both can be viewed from the outside if one is walking on public sidewalks. There is the site of the former Larkin Administration building. There is the Roycroft Campus, which heavily influenced Wright. There is the Guaranty Building, which was built by Louis Sullivan, whom Wright termed The Master and with whom he worked as a young architect.

IOW, there is an entire days worth, possibly two days, or activities in the Buffalo area for the Wright enthusiast. All of these can be viewed with a car, a map, and the knowledge that they exist and are important to understanding Wright's opuses.

There is no excuse why all this information can't be in one place, easily accessible.

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grad94
October 5, 2012 7:55 AM
grad94

http://www.visitbuffaloniagara.com/buffalo-architecture/wright-legacy/

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Rand503
October 4, 2012 7:14 PM
Rand503

We have a long way to go before Buffalo is an expensive or difficult to live in as other cities. It's fallen so far, I wouldn't worry for a while. However, it's a good point -- we must always be planning for the future, whether it be up or down.

I agree -- I can't stand the fact that there is little coordination of among all the culturals to market themselves to visitors.

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replied to Travelrrr
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whatever
October 5, 2012 7:51 PM
whatever

"we must always be planning for the future, whether it be up or down"

Sounds nice in theory…
but I wonder what specific things people feel the city should do differently now if some predict it's on the verge of starting a long term population growth period, while some others oppositely predict the long term shrink trend will restart again when the national economy eventually perks up, and there's also some who predict its population to stay pretty level for a long time at this point.

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Sheldon S. Kornpett, D.D.S.
October 4, 2012 2:51 PM
Sheldon S. Kornpett, D.D.S.

They've got to get rid of those horrible, black, padlocked gates. They ruin the overall aesthetics of the house.

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5to81ALLDAY
October 4, 2012 3:26 PM
5to81ALLDAY

" Every time this city gets any sort of national press, it's usually somehow related to progress at the Martin House."

That's the problem. Its usually ONLY about the DMH and our architecture. How would you market Buffalo to a 25 year old Canadian visiting Buffalo for the day? "Be sure to hit up Duffs/Anchor Bar, then go get hammered on Chippewa/Elmwood but watch out for the cops and the fights." Everyone I know stil living in Buffalo in their 20s respond with "The same-old same-old. It's so boring and repeptive. I run into the same people every night and I just wanna get the H*** out of here" How do we prevent this???

Young people get so over Buffalo and board what it doesnt have to offer. Buffalo is GREAT for the working man with a family and the people that can actually appreciate the little things it has to offer?

How are we keeping our younger generation from leaving?

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LouisTully
October 4, 2012 3:56 PM
LouisTully

What do 20-somethings do in other towns? When I lived in other cities we went out to eat then went and got drunk. What else do kids in their 20s like to do? Go to plays? There are tons of those in Buffalo. Sports events? Got those, too. Not winning teams, but hey, neither does Toronto and that's a super COOL city! Outdoor activities? Yeah, plenty of those.

What do 20-somethings do in super cool NYC? Everyone I know living/had lived there says going out drinking is basically the social event of the week.

Or is it because of the Willis McGahee Effect: not enough Dave & Buster's?

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replied to 5to81ALLDAY
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NBuffguy
October 4, 2012 4:18 PM
NBuffguy

It might not be that 20-somethings do different things in other towns, because I agree with you that many of them like to go out to eat and drink. But it might have to do more with the variety of eating and drinking establishments and number of neighborhoods to do it in. Buffalo has Elmwood/Allentown and then some pockets downtown, maybe Chippewa. You see many of the same people at many of the same places over and over again. In super cool NYC, you can live in the Village where there are more super cool places to hang out in than anyone could do regularly. And if those places get boring, you can go to Chelsea, Nolita, East Village, SoHo, Hells Kitchen, Tribeca, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Midtown, Downtown. And if that's not enough for you, you can always try Brooklyn. Even cities smaller than NYC but bigger than Buffalo offer more options. I often use Baltimore as an example. There are vibrant scenes for 20-somethings in the following neighbrohoods: Hampden, Fells Point, Federal Hill, Canton, Inner Habor, Harbor East, Charles Village, and Mount Vernon. If you get tired of seeing the same old faces in the neighborhoods around the harbor, you just need to try out another neighborhood, and it feels like being in a different city. Buffalo, in my opinion, doesn't really offer that. The "scene" on Elmwood doesn't differ so much from the one on Hertel.

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replied to LouisTully
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allentownbs
October 4, 2012 4:19 PM
allentownbs

If 20 somethings can't find things to do in Buffalo they're CLUELESS. There's Elmwood, Allentown, Hertle and Chippewa. There's college sports, professional sports, rec league sports. There's shopping on Hertle, Elmwood, Main St Williamsville and as much as I hate it Galleria has some good stores. There's wine tours and historic tours. Tons of art and music venues. Thankfully now you can wander the waterfront and rent a kayak, wander Delaware park - or any other park for that matter. Hiking in the gorge, go to Lewiston. There's so much GREAT food here I have a hard time picking where to tell people to go.

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replied to 5to81ALLDAY
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NBuffguy
October 4, 2012 4:24 PM
NBuffguy

Despite my comment above, I should add that I agree with allentownbs about this. I am NEVER bored in Buffalo and have always found plenty to keep me satisfied. I am just suggesting that it might not be enough for other people. I subscribe to the idea that people who are always feeling bored might be feeling that way because they're boring people.

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replied to allentownbs
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5to81ALLDAY
October 4, 2012 4:49 PM
5to81ALLDAY

Can you name the starting QB for the UB Bulls? Thats what I thought.

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LouisTully
October 4, 2012 5:30 PM
LouisTully

Zordich. But I don't think that does anything to his point. He's not crying about being bored. Doesn't mean he should know who the UB QB is. Like knowing anyone on any UB team should be important.

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DeanerPPX
October 4, 2012 7:51 PM
DeanerPPX

Interestingly, a Wright house in Arizona is currently threatened with demolition and sparking debates between preservationists and property owners.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/arts/design/frank-lloyd-wright-house-in-phoenix-faces-bulldozers.html?_r=0

Not to say this is the beginning of the end for the sun belt, but we are ahead of the curve compared to boomtowns like Phoenix which have little to no experience on this sort of thing.

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ladyinwhite
October 4, 2012 9:32 PM
ladyinwhite

{deleted}

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LouisTully
October 4, 2012 11:59 PM
LouisTully

I thumbs-upped you... having your comment deleted. I'm sure it was stellar.

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ladyinwhite
October 6, 2012 4:53 PM
ladyinwhite

Thanks!

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paulsobo
October 5, 2012 1:40 AM
paulsobo

Buffalo only needs to worry about growth changing the character of the city if it remains stupid not even ignorant but stupid. buffalo is 60% demolished filled with empty lots and demolition ready buildings, particularly the east side, black rock, lackawanna (merged), and the south buffalo industrial areas. THIS WHERE TO BUILD NEW BUFFALO.

As far as the good press...that is changing our image...calling us a turn around...a renaissance...are birth. DO YOU THINK THAT COMES FROM A SKATE PARK? WRONG!

it comes from history, culture, arts, music, parks, ... that's why preservation and restoration and reconstruction pay dividends.They are investments because they are valued by by locals and business patronizing visitors...plus visitors can bring companies and jobs. A skate park is a stupid expense...it can't even be used by all locals...only locals who skate within a narrow age bracket.

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