The Wall Street Journal: Escape to Buffalo

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Graycliff. PHOTO: NOAH KALINA
1 COMMENTS
By Jennifer Fernandez
Sept. 6, 2018 12:18 p.m. ET
 
1. The Architecture Spoils
Only knuckleheads—and the obstinately unenlightened—write off Buffalo, N.Y., as nothing more than a winter icebox and the birthplace of a certain sports-bar delicacy. In the late 19th century, the city emerged as a cultural beacon, spurred by industrial boom times and the construction of the Erie Canal. One of the first U.S. urban areas to adopt electric lighting—thanks to the hydroelectric power of neighboring Niagara Falls—it attracted big-name architects to build everything from office buildings to private homes. Start your edifice appreciation tour with a guided spin around downtown organized by the nonprofit Explore Buffalo (explorebuffalo.org). Among the highlights: Poking around the 1896 Guaranty Building, a prototype for modern skyscrapers by architects Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, and Buffalo City Hall, an Art Deco beauty erected in 1932. Then go solo to cruise down the section of Delaware Avenue known as Millionaires’ Row, taking in the Georgian and Tudor-Revival homes of 20th-century banking barons on your way to the newly spiffed-up Darwin Martin complex (martinhouse.org). Nestled within the historic Parkside neighborhood, the mansion-museum, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1903 offers tours. You can also pop over to Graycliff, the lake house Wright built for the Martin family, about a 40-minute drive away (experiencegraycliff.org). Finally, don’t leave Buffalo without a stroll around Delaware Park, Frederick Law Olmsted’s lesser-known New York commission.