Business First of Buffalo, September 25, 2003
Design track
Dale English
Like the venerable Phoenix that rose from the wreckage of its crash in the North African desert to fly again, can old Central Terminal, arguably one of the area’s best-loved buildings, find a new life?
Perhaps. But, but it’s going to take someone with the patience of Job, perseverance to a fault, boundless determination – and pockets deeper than Cornelius Vanderbilt’s railroad empire of the roaring ’20s that erected what was then “the largest wholly-owned building in the huge New York Central System,” according to the Preservation Coalition.
“There’s no magic bullet for its re-use – that doesn’t exist. But, I still think it can be put to good use,” says Fillmore District Councilman David Francyzk, an unabashed “ardent preservationist” who serves on the board of the terminal’s current owner, the Central Terminal Restoration Corp., a not-for-profit corporation headed by Russell Pawlak.
Basic preservation
Since taking ownership in 1997, the CTRC has spent nearly $1 million of county and city money on such basic preservation measures as fencing off the site, fixing a leaky roof, covering about 4,000 broken windows, and clearing drains to stabilize the structure and allow limited public access to the broad main concourse. Over 300 tons of trash and debris have been hauled away, to the point where the CTRC held an open house in June that attracted thousands.
The money and effort are drops in the bucket of what’s needed. But, they’re a start.
“We need to reincorporate Central Terminal into the ongoing life of the city, and this building is on its way to being preserved. We want to make it available to the public because everybody loves it,” Pawlak says.
He is in the forefront of those seeking a new life for the venerable landmark, which was placed on the state and national Registers of Historic Places in 1984. In fact, he and Franczyk met with members of the Seneca Nation of Indians in Salamanca last March to discuss locating a casino in the terminal. The offer was respectfully declined, even though the Seneca’s could have had the building literally for a dollar and a dream.
“We’d entertain any viable purpose for the building, and the next phase of our work is restoration. This building is on its way to being preserved,” Pawlak emphasizes.
Looking back
An appreciation of what Central Terminal’s future could hold requires a glimpse into its past.
The confluence of rail and water transport was the fiber of Buffalo’s early being and rise to power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The city’s first true railroad station was built in 1848 on Exchange Street downtown by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, parts of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s growing rail empire that would ultimately become the New York Central Railroad.
As the city grew into the 1880s and other railroads began planning stations here, city fathers sought construction of a Union Station to serve them all centrally and efficiently. Believing that Buffalo was growing so fast that downtown would eventually extend out to Fillmore Avenue, they selected a site just east of Fillmore, 2.5 miles from downtown, for a “Grand Union Station.”
That never materialized but in 1925 the New York Central, the city, and the Grade Crossing and Terminal Station Commission signed an agreement for the railroad to build Central Terminal off Memorial Drive.
The mid-20s was the zenith for America’s railroads on both the passenger and freight sides and Buffalo, standing roughly midway between New York and Chicago, was considered the ideal place for a signature terminal. Construction of the 15-story office tower and two-story concourse/mezzanine began in 1927 and was completed in 1929. Cost estimates ranged up to $14 million in 1929 dollars.
Art deco
The buff-colored brick and stone tower housed railroad offices. At 271 feet high, its powerfully lighted peak was visible for 15 miles. The main concourse measures 225 feet in length, is 66 feet wide and soars nearly 59 feet. Designed primarily by Alfred Fellheimer, a master in rail architecture who also did New York’s Grand Central Terminal, the building’s appearance featured the splendid art deco design of the day.
Four shades of marble, still visible today despite the grime, were used in the floor. Other marble lines the walls to a height of 15 feet, where it meets a special type of rough-surfaced Spanish tile called Guastavino, selected for its sound-deadening qualities, even in the cavernous concourse. To this day nary an echo can be heard.
Adjacent to the concourse were a stucco waiting room, spacious restaurant and coffee shop, 18 ticket windows, Union News Company concessions, and a series of boutique-like areas housing a variety of enterprises, from a shoe shine parlor to a liquor store. An ornate clock tower – long since “liberated”- dominated and was a favored meeting place. A huge bronze bison, now gone too, was another rendezvous.
Two wings extended from the terminal. One stretched over the train concourse and included 16 tracks, or platforms, while the other was a Spartan structure for mail and baggage. A large basement held up to 180 vehicles, including Van Dyke taxicabs.
The grand opening luncheon on Saturday, June 29, 1929 attracted a crowd estimated at 2,200, believed to be the largest such gathering in city history to that time.
By year’s end about 200 New York Central trains were using the terminal daily; 91,420 passed through it that first year. Scaffold-scrambling clerks recorded arrivals and departures on 12-foot-high blackboards.
Early zenith
That was the terminal’s zenith because four months after Central Terminal opened the massive 1929 stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression. The railroad’s revenue fell 60 percent. While there was some recovery during World War II, postwar air and auto travel virtually doomed the operation.
In keeping with other railroads and their facilities, Central Terminal was on a long, downward spiral with passenger revenues and trains disappearing mightily. December 3, 1967 marked the last run of the Central’s famous Twentieth Century Limited. Two months later the Central and the once archrival Pennsylvania Railroad merged, forming the almost pre-doomed Penn-Central system.
Congress created Amtrak on May 1, 1971 to take over most inter-city rail service from such ailing carriers as the Penn-Central. However, the Penn-Central continued to own Central Terminal with Amtrak as its tenant until Conrail was formed in 1976. Amtrak subsequently abandoned Central Terminal on October 28, 1979 in favor of its new Dick Road Station in Depew and a reopened Exchange Street Station downtown.
Until the CTRC took possession of the terminal in 1997 the building had two owners aside from the City of Buffalo, but literally nothing was done to preserve the structure.
“The private owners used nominal ownership to rape the place. They took every (brass) doorknob in the place, and their watchmen stole the pipes right out of the wall,” Pawlak declares. The vaunted clock turned up as a $29,000 sale item on eBay. Countless windows inside and out were smashed. “And, they even took the stair railings,” he adds.
Rebirth, perhaps?
But can the building be restored? One of the first things the CTRC did in 1997 was commission the Buffalo architectural firm of Hamilton, Houston, Lownie to study the question through a contract with the Polish Community Center.
“We were asked to study what it would cost to knock the building down and put up a half-million square feet of prefabricated space, or if it was kept and restored for light industrial use. We found it was cheaper to keep the building,” says Paul Battaglia, a HHL architect involved with the project.
Numbers released at the time showed it would cost about $55 million to restore the building for light industrial use, $16 million to take it down, and about $4.5 million to fully secure the building from the elements.
Structurally, the terminal is considered to be in remarkably good condition. However, extensive work would be needed on its basic infrastructure.
Battaglia tended to rule out using the terminal for gambling because of its “somewhat isolated” location. “I don’t know how much space a casino would use but the Senecas want a place right off the Thruway with easy highway access,” he says.
His possible uses include light industrial, an office park, or a public school.
“It would make a wonderful school. The old waiting room could house the library, the cafeteria could go in the old restaurant and other space, and the passenger concourse could convert into an auditorium, pool, and playground area. You can use the tower for classrooms,” Battaglia theorizes.
Pawlak’s ideas include keeping much of the main concourse open to the public, and incorporating some light industrial facilities as well as an office park inside. He also thinks part of the space could house a school.
High-rise apartments
“Floors in the tower aren’t that large but they could hold offices or be used for residential. I’ve had people go up there and exclaim, ‘This is my apartment!’” he says. Square footage above the third floor ranges from 6,132 to 4,796 for the top three.
Councilman Franczyk has similar thoughts. “It could be used for a mix of apartments, retail establishments and boutiques, telecommunications companies, or other enterprises. But, it would probably be done in small increments; it would probably be something of mix ‘n match,” he says.
Meanwhile, the CTRC plans to continue its restoration/preservation work.
“Our next project is closing in the five-story building used for baggage handling,” Pawlak says. And, they want to secure the three canopies over the entrance doorways, which still show the brush strokes of their original painting.
“This fall,” he says, “we want to get a design class out here from Buffalo State College to work on it.”
