Buffalo Barn Board has found a home in the city. Remember back in May when I spoke with company owner Brooks Anderson regarding his quest for the perfect building (see post)? Well, he found one over on Barker Street in the same building where Peter Fowler opened his gallery (see post). It’s also around the corner from Artspace, which will be a good fit all around. Brooks is also collaborating with a number of other local artisans to create what will someday be a showroom gallery for fine household crafts ranging from steel works to concrete creations. Artist Jane Stevenson will be coordinating the design of the 3000 sq.’ showroom re-use. Soon Buffalo will have a large forward-thinking interior design showroom featuring some of the most respected custom artisans in the region. From Brooks:
“There is so much more than just moving into the space on Barker. We were looking at some other location options, but this piece of property is very substantial and has everything that we need. I’m bringing together artisans like Charlie Griffasi who will use the space as a showroom. As long as our materials are complimentary, we’ll be working together to create a destination for customers who are looking to remodel lofts and houses. It’ll be mostly showroom with changeable elements and interior samples. It’s the only way we could think of to bring a customer in and show them (to scale) what we are capable of. I want to bring my reclaimed barn wood to the city in an upscale contemporary setting for use in furniture and interior design. Some of my customers are interior designers looking for these elements.
“I’d like to have other craftspeople featured in the building. EB Iron Art (Atlas Steel) is building workable steel weathervanes – steel, concrete, wood, and other materials will all be features. There is also room to grow on Barker. Up until now I have been harvesting the barn wood – now we will also be turning the wood into furnishings and building products. The space is located in conjunction with the Peter Fowler Gallery. My ultimate goal is to have a light manufacturing facility right in that space. Previously, this business was a labor of love – the key that was missing was having a public space for customers. I need a comfortable, high-end, warm setting.
“We want to cater to loft-owners and others who appreciate these materials. Soon I will have a product rep in NYC – bigger metropolitan markets are where we do most of our business. Plus, there is a huge opportunity in Canada that we will explore someday. We’re a snow’s throw away from the largest metropolitan Canadian city. Not only are we talking quality of the re-used wood, it’s important for the customer to know the history of the wood. Some of the wood is cut from a 150 year old barns – we only look at barns that are coming down anyways. If for some reason the barn doesn’t need to come down and it’s historically significant, but the owner still wants it gone, we will relocate it for another owner.
“Your readers might be interested to know that we took the wood from the top two floors from the White’s Livery Stable. I currently have 25,000 board feet (white pine) from that building. The 50′ roof trusses run 6000 pounds each. I would love to find the right structure to put them into. At the same time I’m going to be making hallway benches out of some of them – I want to make 50-60 historic benches out of The Livery… and maybe even some children’s hobby horses. Not many people even knew that the timbers existed, so instead of throwing the timbers into a landfill we’re going to reuse them.
“As far as timeline, realistically we’re just signing the lease this week. Then we’re going to build the space out within 45 days (hopefully). It’s a dynamite-looking building. Located on the top floor is another 6000 sq.’ loft space. Probably by August or September I’m going to start building out that space as well. It’s right next to Artspace – I would like to do some collaborative work with that organization. Look at it this way – this is another existing business moving back into the city. We’re doing our part by investing in Buffalo – we always knew that we would, and now we’re doing it.”
Buffalo Barn Board | Phone: 716-332-7158 | Fax: 716-332-7170