Tag: Feb '08 BRM
wednesday march 26th 2008
Buffalo's Effect on Architect Wallace Cunningham
Buffalo Boomtown By Joseph Verrastro
Buffalo grew up as a city during a golden age of American architecture in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The Ellicott Square building was once the largest building in the world. The Guaranty Building, the first skyscraper. Frederick Law Olmsted designed a park system on par with the greatest parks in the world. Electric streetlights began here, as did the grain elevator. It could be argued that the development of the grain elevator and the daylight factory (naturally lit) were catalysts for what we now consider modern architecture.
Masterpieces of residential, public and industrial buildings are scattered throughout the city; the money and resources as well as the people of vision to make it happen were all here, and we are the beneficiaries of their accomplishment. The cityscape that evolved here played a significant role in the artistic development of a young boy who grew up in the south end of the city many years later.
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saturday march 15th 2008
Love and War at Riverside Park
In 1898, Frederick Law Olmstead, land architect and journalist, designed half of Riverside Park (the other half was bequeathed to the city by a farmer named Crowley). It was the last of his parks in Buffalo. The Olmsted Parks form a coordinated system, the first of its kind in America, according to the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. Riverside Park includes tennis and basketball courts, baseball diamonds, a football field, two pools, and an ice rink. People love it, and also find love in it. Jackie Erckert, a lifetime resident of the neighborhood who chairs the parks committee for the Good Neighbors Planning Alliance, reports; “There used to be a hill there, blueberry hill, where kids came and kissed. You often see people walking together, and I got engaged in the park.”
Yet it would be an injustice to simply describe Riverside Park as a playground or a “make-out…
tuesday march 11th 2008
Broadway Fillmore Alive
What happens when three people, all from different fields, randomly meet and form a unique bond through their passion for a specific area in Buffalo? They form an organization dedicated to spreading good news about that area, while cross-promoting various events through Broadway Fillmore Alive (BFA).
Michele Johnson, Christopher Byrd, and Michael Miller are the serendipitous participants of fate. Johnson works as a housing court liaison, Byrd works closely with the Broadway Market, and Miller has been with the Central Terminal for five years, four as a board member. Apart, they excel at their individual jobs, but together they form an original coalition of the determined. Their common goal is to see the Broadway/Fillmore area thrive and to promote the good qualities the area still exudes.
"We all have the same feeling about the area. It can only go up from here and a lot of po…
tuesday february 26th 2008
Bringing Concrete Inside
Charles Griffasi Jr. has been in the concrete business for 30 years, pouring floors and driveways. "But no one ever stood back and said, 'Wow, that's a beautiful driveway.'" However, the concrete countertops, tables and bars Griffasi makes through his new company, Concrete Innovations, are more than beautiful; each one is a unique work of art.
The variables are endless. The cement is the glue, and when mixed with the aggregate—sand and stone—it creates concrete. The aggregate can be varied by color, and it will differ in appearance depending on how much of it is exposed through the polishing process. The coarser the sanding and the deeper it goes, the more the stone will appear.
Then there is the basic color of the concrete. Color can be mixed in, put on the surface, or both. Shades of white, grey, beige, green, rust, red, charcoal and cobalt are all options with a w…
saturday february 23rd 2008
Mr. Architecture: Chuck LaChiusa
After teaching English at City Honors High school for 26 years, Chuck LaChiusa is enjoying a second career as a tour guide and speaker, an outgrowth of his 11-year-old hobby involving the study of Architecture.
Around 1995, LaChiusa and his wife Nancy attended a meeting of the Erie County Preservation Coalition, and he raised his hand when they called for a photographer to begin documenting the architecture in and around Erie County. "I was hooked immediately," LaChiusa said. Starting with photos of a few buildings, his collection grew and grew.
"I started with photos, but then I got involved with vocabulary and history," LaChiusa said. Starting with a rudimentary knowledge of computers that was cultivated as a result of a grant to City Honors from poet Robert Creely, LaChiusa maintained a site for his students to publish poetry. "I learned the mechanics of it there," h…
The lights at the North Park theatre are all off, as traffic on Hertel avenue zips by. Part of a connected block long structure, at the heart of Buffalo’s Little Italy, the architecture of the theatre at once stands out amongst the darker brick of the adjoining buildings, but also seamlessly fits in.
In fact, because of the slightly towering parapet, you would not be able to tell there was a theatre if it was not for the newer marquee (added in the 1950’s), jutting over the sidewalk. Then the lights come on, just minutes before the show, the whole building comes to life in the bright yellow and red marquee lights, and this piece of Buffalo’s famed architectural history looks stunning and inviting.
Well, almost all of it, as some past renovations and improving cinema technology have covered some of the original features and beauty of the almost century old buildin…
sunday february 17th 2008
The Buffalo Cyclorama Building
When I moved to Buffalo, one of the first buildings that caught my eye was the Cyclorama building at 369 Franklin. When I was growing up I had the opportunity to visit the cyclorama at Gettysburg National Park. The cyclorama depicted Pickett’s charge as if you were standing on Cemetery Ridge. I remember the whole experience of Gettysburg being somewhat traumatic and the cyclorama depiction so real to me that it was disorienting. (Interestingly, the Battle of Gettysburg was displayed at the Buffalo Cyclorama in 1890 for about 2 years.)
The cyclorama, as originally patented, is a huge panoramic picture displayed in 360 degrees so that the viewer is completely surrounded by the image. The painting is lit from above through a diffused light coming through vellum or a glazed dome; there are no visible borders to the scene at the top, or at the “ground” which blends seamles…
thursday february 14th 2008
Celebrating Twenty Years of Wild Things
“It opened by candlelight.” Stephanie Robb speaks softly, painting a romantic picture of Wild Things’ humble beginnings as an artistic cooperative. “When Kristen [Marfoglia] opened the shop we didn’t have electricity or a phone. I couldn’t have imagined twenty years ago that I would be making a living off of what started, for me, as a hobby.” As the current owners, Stephanie Robb and Karol Kirberger, gear up to celebrate the store’s twentieth anniversary, it’s hard to imagine Wild Things as anything but the sophisticated working artisan gallery that it is today.
Specializing in hand made jewelry, Wild Things is one of Buffalo’s acclaimed locally owned businesses. Browsing through the store, you can find almost anything from lavish bridal tiaras dripping with twinkling gemstones to bold, flashy necklaces donned with foreign coins. There is even a shelf full …
