Richardson Revealed: A new plan for the old asylum |
by Geoff Kelly |
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Tonight (Thursday, October 16) Tim Tielman of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture unveils its proposal for the restoration of the long-neglected H. H. Richardson Towers and surrounding grounds, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.
Tielman will present its plan for the Richardson complex at 7pm at St. John’s Church on Colonial Circle. The public is encouraged to attend.
The Buffalo State Asylum, which began construction in 1870 and took 20 years to complete, represented the first and grandest collaboration between the building architect Richardson and the landscape architect Olmsted, both in their primes and pre-eminent in their fields. Beginning in 1965, with the construction of the Strozzi building, the Buffalo Psychiatric Center moved patient care, and eventually all its activities, out of the Richardson complex, which fell into disrepair.
Despite its neglect, it was added to the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1973, and in 1986 it was registered as a National Historic Landmark. In 2002, a group of plaintiffs led by the Preservation Coalition of Erie County sued New York State for its failure to maintain the buildings. The lawsuit succeeded in State Supreme Court, then was reversed on appeal. But the suit led to a deal wherein Governor George Pataki committed $100 million to stabilization, restoration, and reuse of the buildings and grounds. (That amount is now about $76 million, thanks to diversion of funds to other projects.) The deal also led to the formation of the Richardson Center Corporation, led by Buffalo News publisher Stan Lipsey, to create and administer a plan.
We’re still waiting on the Richardson Center Corporation’s plan, though it is forthcoming; Lipsey is pushing for an architectural museum, a visitors center, a signature restaurant, and private development—apartments, offices, a hotel perhaps—of parts of the grounds.
The degree to which the Richardson Center Corporation’s design will seek to regain Olmsted’s and Richardson’s original intentions is unknown, but Tielman says that’s the point from which the Campaign for Greater Buffalo’s plan jumps off: He imagines a continuous, walkable ribbon of Olmsted landscape that runs from the Richardson complex all the way to Forest Lawn and Delaware Park.
“What is of value here is this remarkable and historic complex of buildings set on an equally historic grounds,” Tielman says. “We begin with that.”
To read more about the Richardson complex, visit the Campaign for Greater Buffalo’s blog (greaterbuffalo.blogs.com) and the Richardson Center Corporation’s Web site (www.richardson-olmsted.com). To see more images from Tielman’s presentation on Thursday evening, visit AV Daily at Artvoice.com.
—geoff kelly
Reader Comments
Cynthia Van Ness 19 Oct 2008, 13:04
I fully support Tim's proposals for a "continuous, walkable ribbon of
Olmsted landscape," but I am dismayed that the plaintiff in the Richardson
lawsuit that brought us to this point was misidentified. Campaign for
Buffalo did not exist at the time. We, the plaintiffs, were the
Preservation Coalition of Erie County. I hope you will correct the error
in your next print edition.
Dr. Bill Reynolds
21 Oct 2008, 15:44
I would have appreciated more information on "the degree to which
the...design will seek to regain Olmsted's and Richardson's original
intentions" before I could comfortably support this proposal. My
understanding of the original intention was that it was to create a
facility and environment supportive of recovery from mental health
problems. It appears that Mr. Tielman's proposal, unlike the one I saw
from the Richardson Center Corporation (RCC), allows for the maintenance of
the Buffalo Psychiatric Center and its active campus on the grounds. If
that is indeed the case, I would certainly support Mr. Tielman's proposal.
As a psychologist working in this state hospital, I feel very strongly that
one reason that contributes to our being such an excellent facility is the
environment within which we are located. Our ability to transition
individuals with mental health problems back into the community is
facilitated by the fact that we are located in a beautiful and relatively
safe area where people can walk outside and enjoy the community and feel a
part of it. Based on the plans I saw proposed in the past by the RCC and
rumors I have heard, I worry that some planners have lost sight of the
original intentions of Olmsted and Richardson and are not appreciative of
the excellent work that is done by the Buffalo Psychiatric Center and the
importance of its maintained location on the grounds of Forest and Elmwood.
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