Forging Ahead 2: Buffalo Culture
Buffalo’s arts and culture scene
Buffalo has always had a strong arts and culture scene.
Besides Chicago, it’s the only American city that boasts examples of work by acclaimed architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan and Henry Hobson Richardson.
Groups of 20 will stand around in cold April drizzle to see Wright’s Darwin Martin house, now a national historic landmark.
Sullivan is considered the father of skyscrapers and downtown Buffalo’s Guaranty building is a prime example of his style.
Strong vertical design contrasts the horizontal “layer-cake” construction of other downtown buildings. The effect draws the eye up to elaborately ornamented cornices.
The Richardson Olmsted Complex, begun in 1872, looks like something out of a comic book. Originally built as an asylum, the sprawling building has turreted windows, steeply-pitched roofs and caged-in balconies.
Today the complex is being adapted for use as a hotel and conference centre and an architecture centre. There will also be space on the 203-acre site for the Buffalo Psychiatric Centre and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.
There’s also the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Older than Canada itself, the gallery is so contemporary they have a de Kooning that was still wet when it was hung.
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