The Rust Belt’s Urban Heritage Commons: Activism and Architectural Preservation in Buffalo, NY

Abstract

Buffalo, NY has endured almost a century of economic depression and a subsequent reduction in urban population from almost 600,000 to less than 300,000 city dwellers. While this decay reflects the history of many “rust belt” industrial cities, Buffalo’s unique and distinct built environment has attracted the attention of activists, scholars, architectural admirers, and state/market institutions. Frederick Law Olmsted, Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright all made distinct and career defining contributions to Buffalo. The preservation of their masterpieces has been an ongoing struggle for the last half century, and indisputably continues to redefine Buffalo’s urban vitality. I argue that the preservation efforts have evolved from haphazard individual and institutional efforts to an organized and aggressive activism, which has leveraged historically and culturally significant structures to establish a heritage/cultural commons. The Larkin Building (1904, demolished 1950) by Wright, Guaranty Building (1896) by Sullivan, Darwin Martin Complex (1903-1906) by Wright, Buffalo State Hospital (1870-1896) by Richardson (in concert with Olmsted), and subsequent developments adjacent to each structure all illustrate an evolving preservation movement which- intentionally and unintentionally – establishes a commons perspective on the built environment. Preservation activism has appropriated architecture and landscape from enclosure and demolition by business or governmental interests. The consistent contestation of the built environment asserts a collective entitlement and stewardship of the city’s material fabric and encourages an urban commons approach to the dissolving city and postindustrial urban question.