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Architect Karl Frizlen should look twice before criticizing the designers of the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Frizlen has provided us with some of the least attractive buildings in Buffalo. Take, for example, his two-tone brick office and apartment complex at the corner of Virginia and Delaware on the site where Mark Twain’s house once stood. His structure completely ignores the beautiful, historic houses nearby, and assaults the viewer with a pretentious, towered entryway that bears no relation to its surroundings. He should examine, for instance, the handsome new Robert H. Jackson Courthouse on Niagara Square, which combines contemporary design with impressive acknowledgement of the colors, building materials, fenestration and shapes of its neighbor, City Hall.
Frizlen criticizes the Burchfield Penney’s lack of “accessibility” while neglecting to note that both the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Buffalo Museum of Science have abandoned their monumental entrances in favor of a more practical access adjacent to their parking lots, much like the Burchfield. While the exterior may leave something to be wished for, one only has to enter the building to realize that the architects, Gwathmey Siegel and Associates, have drawn the visitor into an interior space that is a work of art in itself. Each visit to that building is a treat that continuously invites one to explore its endless variety of vistas, gallery shapes and flexible exhibit displays. Buffalo, with its signature buildings by Sullivan, Wright, Richardson, the Saarinens and many others, deserves more innovative buildings like Burchfield Penney and the Federal Courthouse. We will be a more beautiful city when private investors vie with the public domain for architectural excellence. Are aesthetics no longer valued in commercial construction?
Mimi and Peter Dow
Read the orginal article at http://www.buffalonews.com/home/unloved-maybe-but-standing-tall-20150307