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10 Responses to “Buffalo Central Terminal Update”

1. 1 Mark Williams
   November 21, 2003 at 8:57 am

   November 21, 2003

   Lis­ten­ing to National Public Radio this morn­ing, it was reported that the Preser­va­tion Coali­tion of Erie Coun­try has placed Buffalo’s Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Build­ing on their list as the eighth most likely build­ing to be demolished.

   I find this state­ment some­what dis­con­cert­ing since the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Restora­tion Cor­po­ra­tion has achieved remark­able suc­cess with extremely lim­ited funds and now the Preser­va­tion Coali­tion of Erie Coun­try has decided to step forward?

   The Preser­va­tion Coali­tion of Erie Coun­try has stated that they “may have access to funds to help pre­serve the building.” Where the hell have these people been for the last twenty-​years?

   I hope this state­ment is true since most of their “accomplishments” I have seen is hin­drance and delay­ing instead of preser­va­tion. If this orga­ni­za­tion has access to funds, why aren’t they prep­ping build­ings for ren­o­va­tion? Such as repair­ing the roofs against leak­age, remov­ing win­dows to allow ven­ti­la­tion and secur­ing the street level against van­dals. Per­haps, even going so far as to remov­ing asbestos making the prop­erty truly accept­able to a poten­tial client or buyer.

   It is not my inten­tion of play­ing the role of the antag­o­nist in this matter but I would truly like to see some­thing happen to this mag­nif­i­cent building.

   In fact, I have even out­lined a fea­si­ble con­cept of res­ur­rect­ing the build­ing and plac­ing it back into accept­able, prac­ti­cal use. In brief, use the main lobby as a Tops Inter­na­tional Super­mar­ket. Ren­o­vate the tower into con­do­mini­ums since I truly believe that there are people who would like to own a piece of his­tory thus chan­nel mon­e­tary funds into the project.

   And, if I may extrap­o­late, con­sider ren­o­vat­ing the former bag­gage claim and post office area into a com­bi­na­tion res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial space. Plus, a real vision­ary may con­sider using the former con­course and track plat­forms as “patio homes” which are becom­ing pop­u­lar with the “empty nesters.” The pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less and the result­ing good may be the replace­ment of East Buffalo’s decay­ing hous­ing stock.

   These replaced home could be demol­ished and the prop­erty turned over to the Olm­stead Parks Com­mis­sion and areas adja­cent to the many churches and cathe­drals in East Buf­falo could be used as clois­ters or simply places for meditation.

   My con­cepts are not over the top of real­ism, but prac­ti­cal and all we need is some­one with enough polit­i­cal clout to start the prover­bial ball rolling.

2. 2 Robert Wolcott
   December 10, 2003 at 7:54 pm

   This build­ing is one of the many won­der­ful and his­toric places in this city. It offers a glimpse into the past when Buf­falo was a thriv­ing metrop­o­lis. There has got to be more people out there like us, that believe there is a better fate for this beat­i­ful struc­ture. Even in its cur­rent con­di­tion its true beauty shines through. It would truly be a crime if this build­ing was destroyed, and unfair to future gen­er­a­tions that could use it as a glimpse into the past of this won­der­ful city

3. 3 Scott Field
   February 5, 2004 at 3:51 pm

   I would like to cor­rect some of Mr Williams mis­con­cep­tions. I am the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Preser­va­tion Coali­tion of Erie County and the founder and past pres­i­dent of the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Restora­tion Corporation.

   The Preser­va­tion Coali­tion has been involved with the Ter­mi­nal for many years. We helped to have it listed on the National Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places and have orga­nized sev­eral clean-​ups. I per­son­ally acquired the build­ing from the prior owner and set up the non-​profit Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Restora­tion Cor­po­ra­tion, now led by Russel Pawlak,

   The story Mr Williams heard was actu­ally about the Ter­mi­nal being placed on the “Seven to Save” list of the Preser­va­tion League of New York State. The list­ing did not indi­cate that the Ter­mi­nal is in immi­nent danger of being demol­ished but rather should have statewide and national atten­tion devoted towards restor­ing the building.

   The Preser­va­tion Coali­tion (www.PreservationCoalition.org) is not a fund­ing orga­ni­za­tion, but a local mem­ber­ship group devoted to help­ing pre­serve West­ern New York’s archi­tec­tural her­itage. We get build­ings des­ig­nated as land­marks, do tours and lec­tures and pro­vide infor­ma­tion to indi­vid­u­als and businesses.

   The list­ing of the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal on the “Seven to Save” list was done with the per­mis­sion of the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Restora­tion Cor­po­ra­tion in order to attract more atten­tion to the Terminal.

   All of the mea­sures that he men­tions in his note, repair­ing the roofs against leak­age, remov­ing win­dows to allow ven­ti­la­tion, secur­ing the street level against van­dals and remov­ing waste have been done. Over 500 tons of debris have been removed from the build­ing and it has been reopened to the public for tours.

   While his ideas such as a super­mar­ket or con­do­mini­ums may be good, it takes more than good ideas but an indi­vid­ual or orga­ni­za­tion with the cap­i­tal to carry it out. If anyone knows of such a group which might be inter­ested, please have them con­tact me at ScottField@PreservationCoalition.org.

   For the latest infor­ma­tion on the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal, visit our web site at
   http://www.BuffaloCentralTerminal.org

4. 4 Mark Williams
   February 9, 2004 at 2:15 pm

   I stand cor­rected by Mr. Fields and I shall attempt to make amends by apol­o­giz­ing for my mis­con­cep­tions and openly admit­ting that I mis­un­der­stood National Public Radios’ news address that con­cerned the Preser­va­tion League of New York State and not the Preser­va­tion Coali­tion of Erie County.

   I shall quote cor­rectly: “The Preser­va­tion League of New York State selected the ter­mi­nal as one of this year’s seven most endan­gered prop­er­ties, mean­ing its worthy of spe­cial atten­tion to secure its future.”

   How­ever, my state­ments on how to secure his­toric build­ings was not meant solely for the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal but for all derelict prop­er­ties through­out the City of Buf­falo. I am fully aware of the fact that the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal has been cleaned-​up of debris and the win­dows have been sealed because I have assisted in that very process. I give full credit of that daunt­ing task to the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Restora­tion Cor­po­ra­tion and not the Preser­va­tion Coali­tion of Erie County.

   Fur­ther­more, I have approached Tops Cor­po­ra­tion, Iskalo Devel­ope­ment, Ben­der­son Devel­op­ment and Ciminelli Con­struc­tion with my pro­posal for con­vert­ing the main build­ing into an inter­na­tional super­mar­ket to ser­vice the entire com­mu­nity and con­vert­ing the tower into con­do­mini­ums. Per­haps not a novel con­cept but a hell of a lot more prac­ti­cal than some of the var­i­ous other ideas that I have read such as a train museum.

   I even attempted reversed psy­chol­ogy with Ben­der­son Devel­op­ment sug­gest­ing that they may pos­si­bly make amends after their wanton destruc­tion of the Mid-​City Build­ing by res­ur­rect­ing the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Building.

   In an area like East Buf­falo where pride is spoken of but not nor­mally adhered too and appalling con­di­tions are blamed on one select group of people, I believe the only approach is one of totally practicality.

   All of this, with no fan­fare or acco­lades to no avail but per­haps, just per­haps, Mr. Fields I may have instilled an idea into some future entrepreneur?s head.

5. 5 Kelly Law
   March 5, 2004 at 2:53 pm

   Granted, I do not know much about the ter­mi­nal, but right now I live near it. It is now 2004, and I haven’t seen much done either.

   It’s a won­der­ful build­ing and should be saved, but some­thing does need to be done.

   On a windy day, like today (3/5/04), you can hear the build­ing moan, when things move in it.

   That is dan­ger­ous for the area. I have seen early pic­tures of it, and it was a mar­velous place. I’m sure Buf­falo, and Erie County can bring that back.

6. 6 Mark Williams
   March 11, 2004 at 9:29 am

   Kelly Law,

   Finally, another voice of reason instead of the usual pos­tur­ing from the Preser­va­tion League of Erie County or the Cam­paign for Buf­falo whose motto should read: ?Save every­thing, even at the expense of cost­ing the entire region pos­si­ble employ­ment opportunities.?

   This web­site is excel­lent and I only wish more people with common sense would use it as an elec­tronic soap box on the need to pre­serve our build­ings that are worth pre­serv­ing. Instead, we read the ?toot­ing of one?s own horn? on the achieve­ment of obtain­ing the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Build­ing from the pre­vi­ous owner.

   Excuse me, but I am sure that the pre­vi­ous owner was more than happy to dump the build­ing after he stripped it of all of it?s Art Deco embell­ish­ments, copper gut­ters and any other items of value, scrap or otherwise.

   Since you reside in the area Kelly, could you tell me if there is a local (East Buf­falo) inter­est in the build­ing or is it just looked upon as another derelict struc­ture that should be demolished?

   Do you think that the African-​American or Polish-​American mem­bers of the com­mu­nity would be inter­ested in trans­form­ing the build­ing into a her­itage center or cre­at­ing a cen­tral com­mu­nity within the build­ing even­tu­ally expand­ing and/or improv­ing the exist­ing area?

   I do not nor­mally agree with the ?urban renewal? men­tal­ity but I would not mind seeing the major­ity of busi­ness build­ings that line Broad­way demol­ished and returned to green space. East Buf­falo would ben­e­fit by exem­pli­fy­ing the many out­stand­ing beau­ti­ful cathe­drals that are promi­nent in the area by allo­cat­ing the prop­erty sur­round­ing these mag­nif­i­cent build­ings into clois­ters or places for meditation.

   I would like to see the Broad­way Market relo­cated into the main lobby of the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Build­ing thus becom­ing the center of the com­mu­nity and per­haps focus­ing on becom­ing more as-​like a co-​op where the local res­i­dents would have a choice as to where to shop instead of just Tops.

   And, yes, I fully real­ize that ideas are noth­ing more than ideas with­out finan­cial back­ing but how much money was wasted on build­ing the park­ing ramp that is the Broad­way Market today?

   East Buf­falo needs to down-​size from its present over-​abundance of aging hous­ing stock where neigh­bor­hoods look like a gaping mouth with miss­ing teeth as neglected and burned-​out homes are even­tu­ally razed

7. 7 Kelly
   March 16, 2004 at 8:24 pm

   Mark,

   I’m hoping there’s some inter­est in it. There aren’t to many people on my street, and the ones that I do talk to, are, well, I don’t know.

   I can try and get some­thing going, but I’m not sure how suc­cess­ful I’ll be.

   There are a lot of African-​Americans around here, and I know that a lot of the kids get into trou­ble. I would even like to see turned into a center for them even.

   I do agree with you about down­siz­ing this part of the city. There are so many old houses, build­ings, etc, that aren’t being lived in or used, and yet, there’s sup­posed to be a super­mar­ket going up on Jef­fer­son. I just don’t know about this city anymore.

8. 8 Mark Williams
   April 7, 2004 at 9:20 am

   Kelly,

   Sadly, nei­ther you or I have the polit­i­cal clout to do much about the state of the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal Build­ing et. al.

   The orga­ni­za­tions that claim to take proac­tive roles are mostly talk and very little is actu­ally accom­plished other than cre­at­ing a legal mess over a build­ing that even­tu­ally is demol­ished, as like the Vernor’s Build­ing on Main Street for example.

   The “new” direc­tor of the Preser­va­tion Coali­tion appears to be another auto­cratic “tooting of his own horn type” and I shall include an email I sent to him recently that was, nat­u­rally, ignored.

   God forbid anyone should ques­tion the elit­ist group of preservationists…

   Dear Mr. Scott Field,

   I am not fully aware of how exactly the Preser­va­tion Coali­tion of Erie County gen­er­ates funds to main­tain oper­a­tion and I would have to believe that there must be other sources of rev­enue other than dona­tions from members.

   Keep­ing the pre­ced­ing state­ment in mind, I am won­der­ing why your web­site newslet­ter is not more thor­oughly updated. The occa­sional addi­tion of infor­ma­tion is added but the exist­ing infor­ma­tion is simply “pushed to the bottom of the page” and never updated.

   The Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal “call for volunteers” is fully accept­able and I hope that your orga­ni­za­tion will spare some future “page space” for this years clean-​up efforts and per­haps clar­ify as to whether or not the restora­tion cor­po­ra­tion has any agenda in seek­ing out a pos­si­ble future care­taker for the build­ing. Such as the Amer­i­can Indian Asso­ci­a­tion that was, appar­ently, con­sid­er­ing the build­ing for an ath­letic center.

   The build­ing at 644 Michi­gan is going to be demol­ished. How­ever, the sig­nage and cast iron columns will be res­cued for pos­ter­ity com­pli­ments of the Ohio based owner.

   Kudos to the Karpe­les Man­u­script Library Museum for pur­chas­ing the former Chris­t­ian Sci­en­tist Church on North Street.

   121 sig­na­tures on the Peti­tion to Reuse the former AM&A’s Depart­ment Store Com­plex is a sad com­men­tary on our local gentry.

   Joel Giambra is more con­cerned with the 11-million allo­cated to Uni­land then the build­ing and has con­firmed the need to make the site shovel ready…tends to make one think “whose got whose hand in whose pocket?”

   Imag­ine if this money were used for his­toric preser­va­tion, not com­plete restora­tion, oth­er­wise eleven mil­lion would vanish quite quickly. I am refer­ring to repair­ing roofs, which would be our number one damage con­trol, remov­ing win­dows and secur­ing build­ings from van­dals and tran­sients. In other words, moth­balling these build­ings for a future time when this region sees a rebirth and a true, heart­felt inter­est in the past through our archi­tec­ture and this may not happen in any of our life­times, but we would be instru­men­tal in the ini­tial effort.

   I am lit­er­ally refer­ring to spread­ing around this eleven mil­lion to moth­ball every his­toric build­ing in the City of Buf­falo that is in need of atten­tion. And, this is not a far fetch concept.

   The Vernor Build­ing is destroyed. Where are the city poli­cies in pre­vent­ing this from happening?

   Next year is an may­oral elec­tion year for Buf­falo, do you, Mr Field have any polit­i­cal clout, affil­i­a­tion or pos­si­ble polit­i­cal ambi­tion to push Tony Masiello out of the cor­ri­dors of city hall?

   Excel­lent! The 108-year-old Birge man­sion to become law offices. How about a full page photo ses­sion of the com­pleted restora­tion work that the Buf­falo Phil­har­monic could not afford to complete?

   Rich Prod­ucts May Donate Church to Preser­va­tion Coalition…Update? Has this occurred yet and, if so, what are the Preservation’s plans, if any?

   State Calls for Preser­va­tion Par­tic­i­pa­tion Nia­gara Square Fed­eral Cour­t­house. The cour­t­house has been place on a two-​year delay. The project is as good as dead. Typ­i­cal Fed­eral maneu­ver when funds have been over-​spent on other cour­t­house projects across the country.

   Preser­va­tion Coali­tion Praises Judge’s Deci­sion on Richard­son Complex.

   Ancient news, and we all know that absolutely noth­ing is being “stabilized” unless you con­sider a chain link fence “stabilizing.” Yet, another sad com­men­tary on our politi­cians both local and state.

   Two-​years ago I sug­gested to Tim Tiel­man that the com­plex be used as a skilled nurs­ing facil­ity with each indi­vid­ual sec­tion ren­o­vated as space is required for our future aging baby boomer pop­u­la­tion. The “tower section” would remain admin­is­tra­tion and ren­o­vated first fol­low­ing with the indi­vid­ual seg­mented build­ings. HH Richardson’s design for fire pro­tec­tion would allow indi­vid­ual build­ing ren­o­va­tion in stages that could be spread out over a number of years. Pro­vid­ing skilled nurs­ing will be a highly sought after com­mod­ity in the next twenty-​years and gen­er­ate a huge source of money.

   I can not fathom that I am the only person read­ing your web­site and pon­der­ing these same issues, or, am I?

   Regards,

   Mark Williams

9. 9 Mark Williams
   April 9, 2004 at 9:50 am

   I know that this site is for the Cen­tral Ter­mi­nal but I believe that we need to check the pulse of our other archi­tec­turally sig­nif­i­cant buildings.

   There­fore, I would like to intro­duce the HH Richard­son Com­plex to this site as well with my response to the most recent court ruling con­cern­ing the build­ings preservation.

   I will apol­o­gize for repeat­ing myself but I am attempt­ing to drive a few points home.

   “The Appel­late Divi­sion of State Supreme Court has ruled on tech­ni­cal grounds that New York State does not have to main­tain the his­toric H.H. Richard­son Com­plex. The recent ruling rep­re­sents a vic­tory for the admin­is­tra­tion of Gov. George E. Pataki, which had appealed a Novem­ber 2002 ruling in State Supreme Court that could have forced repairs to other his­toric struc­tures as well.”

   This quote, taken from a recent edi­to­r­ial from the Buf­falo News, is a sad com­men­tary on our polit­i­cal lead­ers con­cern­ing our archi­tec­tural trea­sures. Not only is this a slap in the face to all of us preser­va­tion­ist in West­ern New York, it is a major step back­wards con­cern­ing all his­toric build­ings in need of preser­va­tion. Account­abil­ity has been removed and empty promises by our Gov­er­nor ring hollow:

   “Regardless of the court’s deci­sion, the bottom line is that Gov. Pataki has made clear the revi­tal­iza­tion of the H.H. Richard­son Com­plex is a major priority,”

   If this is true, than why have the orig­i­nal court deci­sion repealed? And, if the aver­age reader were to read fur­ther as to what exactly the restora­tion process includes, it would make us all ponder as to where all of the allot­ted funds are being spent.

   “A con­cern of some preser­va­tion­ists is whether sta­bi­liza­tion funds will be used for the complex’s brick build­ings. A 2002 study esti­mated $7 mil­lion was needed to seal all the build­ings. But while those funds are being put to use, sta­bi­liza­tion work begun last fall by the state Dor­mi­tory Author­ity excluded the brick buildings.”

   To clar­ify, this means that the West wing, which is still fully intact and rep­re­sents HH Richardson’s orig­i­nal design, is to be left in it’s present dete­ri­o­rated con­di­tion. Amaz­ingly, the East wing, com­posed entirely of Medina sand­stone, was par­tially demol­ished and the remain­ing build­ings were “remodeled” as office space some­time in the early 1980’s. Having had the oppor­tu­nity to tour the East wing, I ques­tion how much sta­bi­liz­ing is actu­ally required. Whereas, the West wing has been unused since the 1960’s and is lit­er­ally col­laps­ing upon itself in sev­eral locations.

   Inci­den­tally, the reason why the East wing is made of Medina sand­stone and the West is made of brick is because the project, in 1874, was a major cost over­run by the state and the “cheaper” brick was sub­sti­tuted to defer fur­ther cost over­run. Our polit­i­cal lead­ers seem to still be from the same schools read­ing the same books after one-​hundred and thirty-​years.

   “Claudia Hutton, Dor­mi­tory Author­ity spokes­woman, said Tues­day that bids for work later in the year are mainly being directed at the sand­stone build­ings.
   “We started at the core, because that’s the sig­na­ture build­ing of the Richard­son complex,” Hutton said. “Then you go outward.”
   Hutton said the brick build­ings would mainly begin to get atten­tion after the sand­stone build­ings are sta­bi­lized, and then only if money permits.”

   Again, I find this state­ment almost sur­real since the admin­is­tra­tion build­ing was part of the circa 1980’s remod­el­ing project and I ques­tion (again) how much sta­bi­liza­tion is truly required. I am con­vinced that a cer­tain amount of decep­tion is being played out to the gen­eral public in order to pla­cate while “demolition by neglect” is allowed to man­i­fest itself in the sec­tions of the com­plex that require the actual stabilization.

   We all know that absolutely noth­ing is being “stabilized” unless you con­sider a chain link fence “stabilizing.” Yet, another sad com­men­tary on our politi­cians both local and state.

   Two-​years ago I sug­gested to Tim Tiel­man that the com­plex be used as a skilled nurs­ing facil­ity with each indi­vid­ual sec­tion ren­o­vated as space is required for our future aging baby boomer pop­u­la­tion. The “tower section” would remain admin­is­tra­tion and ren­o­vated first fol­lowed with the indi­vid­ual seg­mented build­ings. HH Richardson’s design for fire pro­tec­tion would allow indi­vid­ual build­ing ren­o­va­tion in stages that could be spread out over a number of years

   As for sta­bi­liza­tion funds, per­haps the 11-million allo­cated to Uni­land Devel­op­ment for the pur­chase and demo­li­tion of the former AM&A’s build­ing should be re-​directed towards a gen­eral blan­ket­ing of build­ing preser­va­tion. Imag­ine if this money were used for his­toric preser­va­tion, not com­plete restora­tion, oth­er­wise eleven mil­lion would vanish quite quickly. I am refer­ring to repair­ing roofs, which would be our number one damage con­trol, remov­ing win­dows and secur­ing build­ings from van­dals and tran­sients. In other words, moth­balling these build­ings for a future time when this region sees a rebirth and a true, heart­felt inter­est in the past through our archi­tec­ture and this may not happen in any of our life­times, but we would be instru­men­tal in the ini­tial effort.

   I am lit­er­ally refer­ring to spread­ing around this eleven mil­lion to moth­ball every his­toric build­ing in the City of Buf­falo that is in need of atten­tion. And, this is not a far fetch concept.

   I can not fathom that I am the only person pon­der­ing these same issues, or, am I?

10. 10 Mark Williams
    August 13, 2004 at 2:59 pm

    The clouds of con­tro­versy already begin to form in regards to Albanyâ��s preser­va­tion attempts of the HH Richard­son Complex.

    “The state’s pri­or­i­ties in regard to the City of Buf­falo amaze me,” said John Juszkiewicz, first vice pres­i­dent of Police Benev­o­lent Association.â��

    â��Joseph Foley, pres­i­dent of Pro­fes­sional Fire­fight­ers 282, agreed. “It is a shame that when they’re threat­en­ing to cut city pro­grams and lay off fire­fight­ers, politi­cians seem to have enough money for pet projects,”

    “I just wish they could have put a little more empha­sis on the neces­si­ties of life rather than the luxuries.”

    State Sen. Dale M. Volker, R-Depew said “In all hon­esty, most of my con­stituents were extremely upset. They feel it’s a build­ing, and there was a lot of feel­ing that the city and county are in trou­ble. (The issue) cre­ated a very unusual prob­lem for Buf­falo and West­ern New York, in that it was an invest­ment that won’t (be real­ized) for so many years.”

    â��Alas, poor Juszkiewicz, Foley and Volker! I knew them, Hor­a­tio: a fellow of infi­nite jest, of most excel­lent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thou­sand times; and now, how abhorred in my imag­i­na­tion it is! my gorge rises at it.â�� (Hamlet parody)

    Pet projects? Lux­u­ries? Speak­ing solely for myself but surely echoed by many â��preservationist at heartâ�� the long awaited funds have been (allegedly) allo­cated from Albany for the preser­va­tion and restora­tion of the HH Richard­son Complex.

    How sad those in posi­tions of author­ity have already cast their naysayerâ��s vote, lack­ing any form of vision that this project is for the good of Buf­falo and for the future of the City of Buffalo.

    The future begins today with (finally) pre­serv­ing our past for the next gen­er­a­tions to appre­ci­ate what the City of Buf­falo has to offer in terms of what one of eight great archi­tects of the 19th cen­tury designed and built through­out our fair, albeit fal­ter­ing, city.

    The HH Richard­son Com­plex was intended to be the north anchor of Rich­mond Avenue and had been cast adrift by the State of New York through abject neglect. The time has come for this error to be amended.

    If the stateâ��s attempt to res­ur­rect this build­ing is thwarted by the status quo men­tal­ity of city ser­vices and politi­cians, I for one, rec­om­mend insur­rec­tion to insure that his­tory remem­bers this period of time as a new begin­ning instead of just another failed attempt.