One of the happiest traditions in recent years has been Doors Open, a free annual architectural event that allows visitors to explore and appreciate old and modern indoor spaces, of which many are not usually open to the public. An adopted idea from London and other European centres, it started in North America with Toronto in 2000. While some early sites, such as Don Jail and RC Harris Filteration Plant are sadly out of bounds, the number of sites open and interest in the program has continually increased.
Towns and cities across Ontario jumped on the bandwagon soon after, from historic centres like Kingston, to little towns like Athens, and even suburbs such as Brampton. One of the most interesting is Doors Open Niagara, which takes place this year October 13 and 14, the only international version of Doors Open as sites on both sides of the Niagara River take part during the weekend.
It is a great way to explore our nearest American neighbour, Buffalo. The city was an economic powerhouse at the turn of the twentieth century, thanks to cheap and plentiful hydroelectricity, its strategic position on railway and waterways, and a diverse industrial economy. Many of its landmarks, built between the 1890s and 1930s, reflect this golden age, and many will be open.
Two of my favourites are Buffalo City Hall, an art deco masterpiece with a stunning lobby and an observation deck with commanding views, and the Buffalo Central Terminal, an abandoned grand railway station that has been saved from total ruin by a dedicated grassroots effort.
And since the Canadian dollar has reached parity with the American greenback, it might be tempting to do some cross-border shopping. Or discover the near-north end of Buffalo, which has a great restaurant and nightlife scene.
7 comments
That city hall is amazing.
Toronto’s poet laureate was recently raving about Buffalo’s architecture and was encouraging me to drive down to the Queen City with him someday soon. He says there are more poetry readings in Buffalo in one weekend than Toronto has in a month.
Buffalo rocks. It is so rich with history….and a great theatre scene and Elmwood Village, Allentown, Rust Belt Books…and Gabriels Gate (which I mentioned because they…come on guess it….just had a fire)…and so much more like a mint condition original Swiss Chalet in Ken-Ton. And Feist and Elvis Costello a few weeks ago at the Albright Knox. And so so so much more. All they need is to get people living in the downtown again….Anni De Franco cant do it all alone. “Spacing Buffalo” ? That would be cool….
Check out the infiltration.org tour of the central terminal:
http://www.infiltration.org/abandoned-bct.html
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Spacing Buffalo would be good. Maybe we’ll have sections under the Toronto umbrella for Hamilton and Buffalo. The Golden Spacing. Not being cute — as I mentioned before, even in massive Toronto it’s difficult to keep a mag/etc chugging along, so smaller cities would prove even more difficult. But there is a lots to see so regular features would be good.
My first acquaintance with Buffalo was in 1998, visiting a friend who lived at Allen and Elmwood (above the Steak and Chop or SteakOut or whatever it’s called) and riding her bike all around downtown, along the Frederick Law Olmstead avenues, past the magnificent NYC-style apartment buildings. It seemed alright — Arlington Square — but then we drove east across the city and saw the mid-western rust belt devastation (on our way to Target, of course). Sad and magnificent, like so many American cities.
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I was there in November to give a talk — we hung out on Allen after. It is the most ungentrified urban experience I’ve had. Beers were like $4, people looked like they were heading to Archie Bunkers bar. Even in downtrodden Windsor I never saw such 1970s working class urban life.
A great Spacing-ish Buffalo resource is Buffalo Pundit:
http://buffalopundit.wnymedia.net/
Check out the video they’ve got up from that show Route ’66 shot at the clean and beautiful Buffalo Central Terminal.
Golden Spacing….sort of like “Golden Topping” from the 80’s
Every time I see Buffalo City Hall, I think of those WIVB “We’re 4” commercials from my childhood that ended with a nighttime shot of the building with the station’s “4” logo lit up in the windows.
Shawn,
An even better site is buffalorising.com
Thanks. Buffalo Rising is a great name too.