Preservation Buffalo Niagara is recognizing outstanding preservation projects and those contributing to regional preservation efforts at its annual awards ceremony May 31, 11:30 AM at Kleinhans Music Hall. Buffalo Rising has been profiling this year’s winners leading up to the May event. Peter and Susie (Genevieve) Flickinger are receiving a lifetime service-in-preservation honor award.
From improving the skyline of Buffalo to the importance of boiler efficiency of a National Landmark, this couple has quietly – unrecognized or celebrated – invested and re-invested in the integrity, uniqueness, safety, security, operations, waterproofing, grounds, maintenance, improved accessibility and appropriate upgrades for the functionality of some of Buffalo’s very special places. They have made Buffalo better for all of us and protected some of Buffalo’s greatest architecture with unglamorous gifts of operational stewardship.
Today we all enjoy the copper cupola restored to the roofline above the treetops at Lafayette High School on Buffalo’s west side and a visual landmark for this neighborhood. This special reconstruction was assisted through the philanthropy of the Flickingers. Losing this artifact from the high school would have forever compromised the building design, diminishing its stature, marring its identity. Details matter; original design matters; quality matters – that is the legacy of the Flickingers.
Calling upon his innate engineering sense, and using a systems approach, Mr. Flickinger chaired the Buildings and Grounds Committee at the Albright Knox Art Gallery for at least a decade. His attention to detail – and detailed reports at board meetings – was, and remains, legendary. With total dedication, he approached functionality problems from the perspective of finding lasting solutions that were nearly invisible but improved the visitor experience while easing the burdens of staff. He ensured that the problem was addressed fully, with the best materials, skilled craftsmen, without short cuts, and that solutions would be an investment worthy of the EB Greene masterpiece Beaux Arts style temple to art and its elegant Bunshaft-designed black box addition.
It is difficult to imagine how one might improve upon the 1962 superb design solution by Buffalo’s Bunshaft that masterfully brought a late 19thc architectural design into the modern era. Yet, Peter and Susie found a way to accomplish the impossible with a whimsical, engaging, creative, distinctive, totally fun addition to the building.
Have you ever enjoyed the light sculpture that is a constantly changing light pattern on that gorgeous black glass on the north wall of the 1962 addition? Have you ever driven past the Art Gallery at night on Elmwood or Lincoln Parkway – or even along Nottingham or the 198 when a longer view through barren trees is possible – and found yourself smiling when you witness the fun, funky, energetic light show playing for your enjoyment as you pass by? This sculpture welcomes people to this place, invites us to easily join a dramatic experience, helps to lower the perceived forbidding barrier to a grand marble building, opens and expands the vista for us to enjoy this gallery complex from multiple vantage points, reminding us that great design includes context, landscape, siting and an emotional engagement. You could never describe this building as an inanimate object!
This very public gift to the Buffalo community and our many visitors was made possible by the Flickingers. What an amazing return on investment if you count the hundreds of thousands of smiles made possible by this gift that serves to enhance the definition of “place” where young and old enjoy this piece – from near and far – during all four seasons of the year.
Other projects include gardens by Ellen Biddle Shipman at Orchard House in East Aurora, and several remarkable private residences in Buffalo.
Through their active, hands-on, engaged philanthropy the exceptional arboretum and cemetery at Forest Lawn has also had its rustic stone Chapel enhanced with new electrical service, lighting, paint, roof and improved interior space to accommodate private services and public events in greater comfort, while protected by appropriate and thoughtful upgrades. This building now matches its operating systems with its built-to-last design, and is ready for many more generations to utilize this place long into the future.
Their greatest stewardship may be the sustained involvement and investment in St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, a National Landmark and home to Buffalo’s oldest congregation, still located in the heart of the business and government center of our community. Their project list of copper gutters and roof drains, re-pointing ancient stones, lighting, elevators, re-leathering the organ and cleaning its ranks of pipes, and much more is probably too lengthy to provide here.
So, in thanks for all that they have done from the operational to the elegant to the sublime at places that matter, treasured by generations of Buffalonians, Preservation Buffalo Niagara has chosen to honor the collection of gifts over decades by Peter and Susie Flickinger to prepare National Register buildings for a long, safe, functional future.