April 19th, 2010
Queenseyes at Buffalo Rising posted about his authorized look inside the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride after the recent fire. From his write-up, it appears the damage was very limited and the Richardson-Olmsted Corporation is getting serious about keeping trespassers out of the building. Read the story and view photos here: Richardson Triage Slide Show.
Update: The Richardson-Olmsted Corporation just sent out this email message…
April 12th, 2010
I’m a bit late writing about this here, but I think it’s important enough to make a post regardless. There was a fire on the second floor of the admin in the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride building early this past Saturday morning. The two-alarm blaze caused $200,000 worth of damage, but apparently there was no major structural damage and renovation efforts will not be affected too much by it.
The fire is considered suspicious and arson has not been ruled out. Firefighters were called to the building at 3:15 in the morning. Investigators have determined that the starting point was most likely a pile of papers on the floor, and also found a point of entry to the building which may have been used by someone who started the fire.
The article with the most information on this story that I’ve found so far can be found on The Buffalo News web site: $200,000 Fire Damages Richardson Complex.
September 7th, 2009
Aside from a video with some nice photos and footage of the Buffalo Kirkbride, there’s not much new in this article about the rehabilitation project there: Plans for the Richardson. It’s good to hear things are progressing, but I just mainly wanted to point out the video (it appears directly after the text of the article).
November 3rd, 2008
In case you read this post and were wondering how the voting went, the Richardson-Olmsted Complex is the winning architectural landmark! With 34% of the vote, the old asylum building will be featured in this year’s snow globe. Unfortunately, it sounds like the globe won’t be available for the holidays. Read more on Buffalo Rising. I thought it was interesting that people tried to “stuff the ballot box” as they put it. Who’d have thought people were so passionate about a snow globe? My only problem with this whole thing is that I can’t find any information on how to actually buy a globe. I guess maybe you have to go to The Floristry in Buffalo to get one?
October 16th, 2008
The Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture will be revealing its proposal for the Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride restoration tonight (10/16). The presentation will take place at 7:00PM in St. John’s Church on Colonial Circle. The public is encouraged to attend. There probably won’t be any earth-shattering revelations during this presentation, but at least it indicates things are moving forward. If anyone in the Buffalo area attends, please let us in on the details.
October 13th, 2008
Vote now! No, not for the next president, but for the subject of the next Buffalo-building-themed snow globe! According to Buffalo Rising, last year Avalon Scarves and The Floristry (both of Buffalo, New York) created a snow globe featuring Buffalo’s City Hall. Now they’re asking the public to choose which iconic Buffalo structure should be featured in this year’s globe. They’ve posted an online poll where you can vote, and the Richardson Complex is one of the options! Vote here.
April 14th, 2008
Just a reminder to those of you in the Buffalo, NY area: there’ll be a public meeting about the Richardson Complex this Wednesday, April 16th. The meeting starts at 6PM and will take place at the Buffalo and Eerie County Historical Society, 25 Nottingham Court, in Buffalo. Findings, recommendations, updates and plans on stabilization and redevelopment will be presented.
If anyone reading this attends, please let me know of any surprising or especially good/bad news. Thanks. I’m hoping there’ll be some fantastic revelation about preservation and reuse of this historic building—it’s definitely one of my favorites. I won’t be surprised if it’s just a rehashing of things we’ve heard before though. Things usually turn out to be a lot less exciting than my hopes… *sigh*
March 7th, 2008
There’s an article in The Buffalo News about repairs getting underway at the former Buffalo State Hospital Kirkbride. Stabilization, roof repair, electricity and added security seem to be the priorities. There’s no surprising information here if you’ve been keeping up with the story, but the photos accompanying the article are a nice surprise. They show work being done on one of the outlying brick wards—the part of the building least likely to be saved. While it doesn’t mean anything for certain, it makes me hopeful that preservation of the brick wards is at least a possibility.
Note: Some time after this post was published, The Buffalo News archived the article mentioned and it is no longer available without a membership to their web site. The article can still be read here, although the pictures aren’t included.
February 12th, 2008
For those of you in the Buffalo, New York area, there’s going to be a public meeting regarding the Richardson Olmstead Complex on Wednesday, April 16th. The meeting will be at 6PM at the Buffalo and Eerie County Historical Society, 25 Nottingham Court, in Buffalo. That’s about two months away, but mark your calendars… (more…)
January 10th, 2008
On the Buffalo State University web site, I found this podcast of a forum discussing the problems and possibilities of bringing life back to the Richardson Complex. The forum took place on May 5th, 2007. Apart from the discussion of ideas and visions for re-use, there are some tidbits of history mentioned, as well as explanations of the usual problems encountered when trying to find new uses for a Kirkbride building.
