A 'CAN-DO' ATTITUDE COULD SAVE CENTRAL TERMINAL
June 3, 1995
On May 20, I was one of many who attended the rally on the East Side to show support for the Central Terminal. I had a little longer drive to get there because I drove in that morning from Utica.
I became fascinated with railroad stations as a building type when I was an architectural graduate student at the University at Buffalo some 10 years ago. As a registered architect, I have been researching the preservation and adaptive reuse of railroad terminals throughout the country for future book material. I've visited, studied and photographed dozens of stations.
Buffalo Central Terminal has always been among my favorites. To claim that it is not "architecturally significant" alludes to the problem that Buffalo shares with Utica: poor self-image. People are frustrated and disheartened by the recent history of the terminal, the grandiose plans that never materialized, and the mistakes that were made.
It's a daunting task that lies ahead. The building needs immediate action. "Barring an unlikely miracle, the terminal is terminal," to quote an editorial from January of 1993. It appears that $1.5 million to stabilize and begin to restore Central Terminal may just be that "unlikely miracle."
Precious few projects of this magnitude can avoid a blend of financial and other resources of both a public and a private nature. It takes commitment, cooperation and an undying resolve. For those cities that have it, the payoffs have been too numerous to count. Their stations have become landmark destinations and tourist attractions, pulling whole neighborhoods from the brink of oblivion. With so many other notable examples of success, the tower of Central Terminal must be made to shine again as the beacon of hope for the future of Buffalo.
I want to see Buffalo Central Terminal in the category of successes, not of the failures.
MICHAEL J. BOSAK