July 18, 2005
Exploring Frank Lloyd Wright in Buffalo
and Serenity on Lake Ontario
My theory is a real traveler is able to discover interesting things
even in the most unlikely of places. Well, Buffalo probably hasn't
made the "top travel destinations" list for a while, but
I have been doing some research on it and I thought it's high time
to explore Buffalo, the closest American city to Toronto, just south
of Niagara Falls and right across the Fort Erie border.
So my fellow travel and architecture aficionado Shauna and I headed
out early yesterday morning to make the 2 hour trek to Buffalo.
We picked the Fort Erie border crossing and fortunately it wasn't
very busy at all. The border crossing was actually a reasonably
pleasant experience as the border guards were in a really good mood
and very friendly, a nice foreboding to a good day.
Approaching the city we immediately took a wrong turn and headed
south on Highway 5 away from downtown. But we got to see Buffalo's
waterfront, which in this area includes a few rather unspectacular
marinas and some old run-down industrial buildings. We turned ourselves
around and headed back towards the downtown area. Because the tourist
information office was closed on Sunday we figured, we'd stop in
at the Hampton Inn & Suites Hotel to pick up some tourist brochures
and city maps. Another pleasant experience: The lady at the front
counter was extremely helpful, provided us with several brochures
and a printout of how to get to 2 of the most important architectural
heritage sites in Buffalo: Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House and
his other important Buffalo work, Graycliff Mansion.
Having parked the car on Delaware Avenue at about 10:30 am, the
one thing that struck us immediately was how empty the streets were.
There was virtually no pedestrian traffic at all and very few vehicles
passing by. We figured it must be too early for people to be out,
and we headed off into a restaurant called "Flappy's"
to strengthen ourselves for the day with a filling brunch. We booked
our tour at the Martin House for 2 pm, so after breakfast we had
about 2 hours to do a walking tour of downtown.
Buffalo's City Hall
As we came out of the restaurant we noticed the city had gotten
a bit livelier, but not by much. We parked our car close to Niagara
Square and started our exploration on foot. First on the agenda
was the Buffalo City Hall, a monumental Art Deco skyscraper completed
in 1931, built of orange-hued sandstone with intricate details and
colourful ornamentation. An immensely impressive building. We examined
all the facade details and friezes which display images related
to agriculture.
The Guaranty Building
We did a little downtown circle and covered a few really interesting
buildings. The red colour and detailed ornamentation of Louis Sullivan's
Guaranty Building really captured our imagination. We passed by
St. Paul's Cathedral and past the trolley tracks of Main Street
we discovered the Elicott Square Building. The east entrance to
the building was actually open so we went inside. This building
was erected in 1896 according to a design by Daniel Burnham, one
of Chicago's most famous architects. This building is constructed
around a large interior court covered by a glass block ceiling held
up by ornamented steel girders. We commented on how similar this
design was the one of Chicago's most famous buildings, the "Rookery",
and it wasn't until this morning that I realized that both buildings
were created by the same architect.
.
Courtyard in the Elicott Square Building
It's an amazingly impressive building with gorgeous sweeping staircases
and an intricate mosaic covering the entire courtyard. From the
Ellicot Square Building we headed towards the Lafayette Hotel, a
handsome red brick and white terra cotta French Renaissance-style
building which was built in anticipation of the expected influx
of visitors at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. Due to financial
difficulties, however, it was not opened until 1904. From there
we checked out the General Electric Tower, a handsome white Terracotta-clad
structure dating back to 1912.
The Electric Tower
The Electric Tower happens to be right beside another fascinating
building: the Buffalo Savings Bank, a building manifesting Buffalo's
boom of the second half of the 19th century. In the late 1890s -
the peak of Buffalo's golden age - the bank held a competition for
a grand new headquarters. The contest was won by Green & Wicks,
Buffalo's premier turn-of-the-century architectural firm. Their
design projected stability, security, and aspiration.The building's
signature feature is the gold-leafed dome.
The Buffalo Savings Bank
After the Buffalo Savings Bank we explored the Genesee Building
which today is the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Just as we finished exploring
that building the heavens opened up and there was a torrential downpour
so we sat down in front of the Hyatt and took in the street scene.
We were facing Main Street, the street that is now a pedestrian
zone and accommodates Buffalo's light rail rapid transit line. One
thing we consistently noticed in Buffalo was the absence of street-level
stores and restaurants. In the downtown core, as a matter of fact,
most of the modernist office and government buildings did not have
any street level retail at all. A lot of the modern administrative
buildings in Buffalo have a rather austere and non-welcoming feeling
and some of the newer buildings dating back to the 50s and later
have an almost penitentiary feeling to them. The resulting scarcity
of street-level store fronts combined with the utter lack of pedestrians
(certainly on the weekend) really gives downtown Buffalo a rather
eerie deserted feel, and the absence of people downtown was our
most striking impression of Buffalo. Judging from the classically
styled street lamps with blooming planters, however, the city appears
to have been working on beautifying the downtown core.
The Lafayette Hotel
We started heading back to the car and passed by the Statler Hotel,
which isn't really a hotel any more, but apparently a building full
of lawyer's offices. We had a look inside the impressive lobby which
features French chandeliers from the early 20th century. I took
a couple of pictures, but the security guard stopped me, telling
me no photography was allowed. We had a really interesting chat
after this and he commented on long-standing economic problems of
Buffalo and how in his opinion, the current mayor had only made
things worse. One example of the city's economic problems is that
the stately ballroom of the Statler Hotel had only been recently
reopened after having been closed down since 1957. Furthermore,
a previous owner of the building had tried to create a food court
in the basement and had opened up the main floor, but ran out of
money before the food court could be built. So now you have a rather
obtrusive opening on the ground floor with a view into an empty
basement without stores or food outlets. Our local contact also
commented on the reasons why downtown Buffalo was so devoid of people,
and he said that all the locals did their shopping at the suburban
malls and big warehouse stories. That, combined with the economic
woes of the city, has apparently created a flight into the suburbs
that has left the city's core rather lifeless on the weekend.
It was really quite sad to see that a city like Buffalo, which
has such a great number of outstanding architectural heritage sites,
had virtually no street life, retail or shopping opportunities in
the downtown core. A lot of stores were boarded up and the few stores
that were there were closed down tight on the weekend.
The Martin House in Buffalo
Well, we had to move on to our tour of another architectural jewel,
Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House. Darwin Martin was a high-ranking
executive with the Larkin Soap Company and his brother-in-law had
encouraged Darwin to seek out Wright's work in Oak Park, a suburb
of Chicago. After familiarizing himself with Wright's work, he brought
him to Buffalo in November 1902 to build a house for his sister,
the Barton House, with a size of about 4000 feet, and then to build
his main house, a 15,000 square foot Prairie Style home, characterized
by Wright's rigorous and consistent use of cruciform plans, piers
and cantilevers, and other prairie house principles. After many
years of neglect, the Martin house is now under renovation to restore
it back to its original early 1900's authentic splendour.
Right now the building is empty and a few large photographs illustrate
the former decor and furnishings. It's very visible that this building
has been neglected for a long time and the Martin House Restoration
Corporation is working very hard to restore it back to its authentic
1907 characteristics, even to the degree of rebuilding the pergola
and the coach house that were demolished by a previous owner. The
tour lasted about 90 minutes and was provided by a very passionate
docent and all the volunteer staff in the gift shop and the chaperone
were very helpful. We even received a glass of water in the 60s
style kitchen of the Martin House which will be torn out and replaced
by more authentic furnishings as the renovation continues.
After the humid heat inside the Martin and Barton Houses we were
glad to get outside to cool down. We drove through the Park Side
East Historic District surrounding Delaware Park, a creation of
the famous landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed
Central Park. The area around Delaware Park and the Forest Lawn
Cemetery is a beautiful part of the city with gorgeous mansions
and manicured lawns, and this beauty is most visible on Millionaires'
Row along Delaware Avenue. There was much more traffic and street
life in this part of Buffalo, the atmosphere was pleasant and the
residential areas impressive.
On the waterfront in Lewiston
We headed over closer to the Niagara River and drove along the
Seaway Trail, crossed Grand Island and continued on the outskirts
of Niagara Falls, NY, right along the Niagara River towards Lewiston.
The drive north of Niagara Falls to Fort Niagara State Park on Lake
Ontario is gorgeous, with beautiful old homes overlooking the Niagara
River, huge trees overhanging the 2-lane country road, with well-kept
properties on either side of the road. We stopped for a snack just
outside the very quaint town of Lewiston, in a place called the
Silo, which is right next to the river, overlooking a launch area
for the high-speed boats that whisk visitors into the rapids of
the Niagara Gorge. We had a lovely greasy lunch outside, enjoying
the breeze (hey, you don't have to eat healthy every day) and then
continued our drive all the way to Fort Niagara State Park, admiring
the villas and estates.
We had chosen to cross the border at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge,
but construction work had caused confusing detours and a local New
York State father and son team stopped their car when they saw us
by the road, staring at the map, trying to figure out how to get
to the border crossing. They rolled down the window and said they'd
guide us to the bridge, which they did. We followed them for about
10 minutes through the maze of detour signs until we found the bridge
and headed back over to Canada. Both of us were very impressed with
the friendliness and helpfulness of the locals.
Along the Port Dalhousie pier
Back on the Canadian side we drove along the Niagara Parkway and
stopped in the beautiful little village of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
NOTL calls itself the "prettiest village in Ontario",
and they might just be right. The village is home to beautifully
maintained Victorian homes, overflowing flower baskets, souvenir
shops, cafes, bed and breakfasts, as well as the famous Shaw Festival,
and for many Ontarians it is a favourite destination for a quick
weekend getaway.
From Niagara-on-the-Lake we headed through vineyards and orchards
to St. Catharines, and to its Port Dalhousie waterfront entertainment
area, not forgetting to stop by a road-side fruit stall to buy ripe
red cherries and nuclear-size apricots fresh from the tree. About
20 minutes from NOTL, Port Dalhousie harbours a marina and a long
pier and numerous outdoor patio restaurants, ice cream parlors,
souvenir shops and other entertainment. Hundreds of people were
parading along the pier, couples, parents with children, dog owners,
retired folks and a very interesting young lady with red hair, whose
friend had given her poodle a matching-colour hairdo with the leftover
hair dye.
Red (pink) hair, anyone?
The atmosphere in Port Dalhousie was almost like in a Californian
seafront resort town with rollerbladers, walkers, beach volleyball
players, boaters and relaxed pedestrians taking a stroll through
the village and on the pier. I did not even feel like I was in Ontario.
The sun was starting to set and lake was laid out in front of us
like an ocean, with no shoreline visible on the other side. It was
a beautiful hot evening and I felt like I wanted to spend a whole
week in this happening spot. But no such luck, we had to get back
to Toronto after our exciting girls-only excursion to Buffalo and
the Niagara Peninsula.
We got to explore some fabulous architectural gems, connected with
the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, had a lovely greasy lunch right
next to the Niagara River, enjoyed the hospitality and the helpfulness
of the local New York State residents, and back on home territory,
we hopped along the Lake Ontario shoreline to enjoy fresh fruits,
frozen yogurt and an amazingly relaxing late afternoon by the waterfront.
It doesn't get much better than that.....
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Useful books for travel to Buffalo and the Niagara Peninsula:
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