Historic Structures Report And Cultural Landscape Report

The Historic Structures and Cultural Landscape Reports are complete and will serve as guides for future changes made to this historic property. As an important first step in the planning process, these reports provide a critical foundation for future stabilization and master planning activities.

Goody Clancy prepared the Historic Structures Report and, utilizing its expertise in historic preservation, began work in August, 2007. As an award winning firm, Goody Clancy has been instrumental in the rehabilitation of buildings such as the H.H. Richardson designed Trinity Church and Faneuil Hall in Boston. The Historic Structures Report follows National Park Service guidelines to provide detailed documentary, graphic, and physical information about the property's history and existing condition and serve as a guide for rehabilitation as plans for reuse proceed.

The recommendations and guidance in the Historic Structures Report will provide a framework for future rehabilitation:

The current site retains much of the original therapeutic setting and sense that motivated its creation 130 years ago. It is an intact site thoroughly illustrating the evolution of the treatment of mental health in the United States from 1870 to the present. There are examples of the architectural manifestations of different psychological theory of the treatment of mental illness present on the site. These include Kirkbride’s ‘linear plan’, the ‘cottage plan’ of the early 20th century, and the contemporary Strozzi Building which is focused on in-patient services. This physical memory of the evolution in attitude is one of the most unique and character defining features of the site as a whole.

The unique significance of the site is defined by important interrelated elements: a remarkable collection of buildings by one of America’s greatest architects, Henry Hobson Richardson; a great example of the distinctive ‘Kirkbride Plan’ typology; the development of mental health institutions in the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; eminent local and state architects; and the influence of persons significant within Buffalo’s political and social history.

The Period of Significance for the site spans from 1870-1969. The start date reflects the finalization of this site for establishing the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane by the New York State Legislature and the end date reflects the demolition of the three outermost male ward building on the west side, thus disturbing the original “Kirkbride Plan” layout.

The early buildings of the site are all equally significant. The Administration Building and the Wards – both brick and stone – form the core buildings and begin the incredible story of the complex. These buildings are the most significant structures on the site, are generally in good (or at least repairable) condition, and all merit retention and eventual rehabilitation. The core buildings are significant due to their level of intact original historic fabric and the story that their architectural design and implementation tell.

The exterior of the buildings are overall in good condition and all are considered by the HSR team to be viable candidates for rehabilitation. The stone Wards and the Administration building are in good condition overall, with isolated areas of deteriorated stone, mortar and roofing material. The brick Wards are in worse condition, with areas of the walls that are deteriorated to the point of collapse. The areas of collapse appear to be isolated and not affecting the overall structural integrity of the buildings. In general, the stone connectors are in good condition and the brick connectors are experiencing more deterioration and collapse.

The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties are the guidelines used to characterize the appropriate treatment recommendations for the Richardson Olmsted Complex. The Standards provide a philosophical framework from which decisions about the appropriate treatment of the historic resources can be made, and provide options: restoration, preservation, rehabilitation. “Rehabilitation” is recommended for the core buildings on site. Rehabilitation is defined as: “the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values.”. This approach acknowledges the need for the site to continue to evolve and change and is the only approach that allows for alterations and additions.

A new use must be found, and the viable reuse options might range from preserving the complex as a ruin, to rehabilitation for reuse. For these reasons, and others, the Richardson Center Corporation will have to have the latitude to be innovative to repair the buildings and find other uses for it. Failing that, it is inevitable that the complex will just deteriorate further.

Historic Structures Report - Executive Summary
Historic Structures Report - Full report

Heritage Landscapes, Preservation Landscape Architects & Planners, prepared the Cultural Landscape Report which is the principal tool to document the history, significance and preservation treatment of the historic landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1871. Firm founder Patricia O’Donnell is a Buffalo native and a leader and expert in historic landscape preservation.

The recommendations and guidance in the Cultural Landscape Report will provide a framework for future rehabilitation:

The landscape is important as a surviving example of a therapeutic landscape designed in the mid-19th century by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. and Calvert Vaux of Olmsted, Vaux & Company.

The landscape of the Richardson Olmsted Complex is nationally significant based on multiple historical associations. Principally, the landscape is an example of the humane treatment of the mentally ill as a medical advance toward the use and incorporation of therapeutic landscapes for patient treatment. Additionally, the landscape is recognized as a master work of Olmsted and Vaux, as well as the first major collaboration between Olmsted and Vaux and Richardson. The landscape is also a contributing resource to the larger context of Buffalo's Parks and Parkways system.

Together, Olmsted and Vaux made contributions to the orientation and siting of Richardson’s Kirkbride-style asylum building that would provide a more engaging landscape. Sited at an angle, the stepping wings of the asylum building framed a more public area to the south along Forest Avenue. The stepping wings also embraced the northern lands to create a more private therapeutic, service, and agrarian landscape to the north. The Asylum was sited at the outskirts of Buffalo adjacent to the grounds laid out for “The Park,” now Delaware Park.

The design of the therapeutic landscape at the Buffalo State Insane Asylum was rooted in the concept that one’s surroundings could directly be the cause and cure of mental illness. Therefore, calm and peaceful surroundings designed for these progressive mental institutions were believed to be curative and therapeutic for patients.

Evoked with popular landscape design styles for the mid-19th century, the therapeutic landscape was fashioned as one of curvilinear drives and open lawns with scattered trees and shrubs that choreographed a sequence of spatial relationships and views throughout the asylum landscape. A semicircular entrance drive from Forest Avenue provided ever-changing majestic views of the pastoral landscape and soaring twin towers of the Administration Building.

New buildings erected in areas of the therapeutic landscape altered spatial organization and views and resulted in degradation and disuse of the landscape. Other additions, buildings, and alterations to the landscape were not fully integrated into the historic landscape character, leaving the campus today with no clear unity with the style of historic features.

Today, the landscape of the site retains remnants of the original Olmsted and Vaux therapeutic design with fragments of curvilinear drives, open lawns and vegetative scenery that date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some historic trees remain with segments of historic drives and walks, including the curved entry drive that form a skeleton of the former design. The southern landscape between the Richardson asylum building and Forest Avenue remain most intact as the public frontage.

Rehabilitation is the appropriate treatment recommendation focusing on bolstering historic landscape character and protecting historic trees, while accommodating current and new future use through changes in built elements, vegetation, and furnishings, among others. In general, recommendations focus on:

• Respecting remaining historic features through sound stewardship

• Enhancing historic character through replacement or recapture of character-defining features

• Identifying appropriate new development with the historic fabric of the hospital

Cultural Landscape Report - Executive Summary
Cultural Landscape Report – Full report