Inspiration

The Best City to Experience Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture Is…Buffalo?

How a years-in-the-making restoration is transforming both an architectural masterpiece—and an entire city.
This image may contain Grass Plant Lawn Patio Porch Building Vegetation and Wood
Photo by Lilit Marcus

The great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright is most commonly associated with the Midwest—most notably, Chicago and his native Spring Green, Wisconsin. But there’s an exciting architectural trove of Wright’s work in a less expected destination: Buffalo, New York. And in 2017, the 150th anniversary of his birth, Buffalo hopes to officially put itself on top of every architecture lover’s list. The first step? A years-in-the-making $50 million restoration of the Darwin Martin House, Wright’s first significant commission as an architect outside of the Midwest. Now nearly complete, the house is the lynchpin of a five-site “All Wright, All Day” tour that aims to bring his fans to upstate New York and put Buffalo back on the map as a major design destination.

The Martin House’s story is also Buffalo’s story. Darwin Martin was an executive for the Larkin Soap Company, a Buffalo business that made a fortune by giving deals to customers who purchased their “factory to family” products in bulk—think of it as the forerunner for Costco—in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the time, Buffalo was the eighth largest city in America, with the highest number of per capita millionaires. Martin was one of them. He had an open mind, an interest in architecture and design, and a nearly unlimited budget, which made him the perfect partner for Wright, who had just left a prominent Chicago firm to strike out on his own and make a name for himself. Martin heard about Wright from his brother who lived in Chicago, and ultimately commissioned three buildings from the up-and-coming architect: his home, a smaller house for his sister on the same piece of property, and the Larkin company’s administration building. Years later, Wright would return to western New York to design the Martins’ summer home, Graycliff, on Lake Erie.

Wright’s vision was so overwhelming that he wanted to control even the tiniest details, from the rain gutters to the birdhouses. He designed a dress for Darwin’s wife, Isabelle, to wear, which he believed complemented the building.

Mary Roberts is the executive director of the Martin House. She grew up nearby, and her husband was raised in the very neighborhood the Martin House sits in. She has spent years devoting herself both to protecting one of Wright’s early masterpieces and to telling the story of the Martin family. “A lot of people don’t know as much about the Martin House as they do about other Wright houses like Fallingwater,” she tells Condé Nast Traveler. “This was the opportunity that spring-boarded [Wright] to national and international fame. It’s during the construction of the Martin estate that he travels to Japan for the first time," an experience that would influence Wright's work for decades to come. The project, which was completed in 1907, totaled 32,000 square feet of building space, much of which wasn’t in the original plan that Wright pitched his client: altogether, the complex consisted of six interconnected buildings, including the main house, servants’ quarters, carriage house, conservatory, and an open-air walkway that is one of the most visually striking (and most photographed) elements.

Any Frank Lloyd Wright fan would probably be able to pick the Martin House out on sight, even if there weren’t groups of gawkers standing in front of it. Its long, angular design is characteristic of Wright’s Prairie Style of architecture, and many of the features—use of indoor plants to make the house seem more at one with nature, low ceilings, and bands of decorative art glass, including the Wright-designed “Tree of Life” window, which remains one of the most popular Wright designs on Christmas tree ornaments, glass paperweights, and other souvenirs—all came to be known as Wright hallmarks. Wright’s vision was so overwhelming that he wanted to control even the tiniest details, from the rain gutters to the birdhouses. He even designed a dress for Darwin’s wife, Isabelle, to wear, which he believed complemented the building.

The view of Winged Victory at one end of the open-air walkway.

So how did the Martin House go from being a major architectural work by a noted architect to being largely forgotten? The answer is, sadly, simple: Larkin, Martin, and Buffalo all went broke. Martin and his wife lost much of their fortune in the Great Depression. The administration building was demolished. The Martin House sat empty for years, and many Buffalonians have stories about sneaking into the unlocked building to play hide-and-seek or a game of catch when they were children. Originally, many worried that the Martin House would be torn down or lost to the elements; the pergola, conservatory, and carriage house were all torn down in the early 1960s. Luckily, a small but committed group of locals (first the University of Buffalo, then the Martin House organization) were able to secure the house complex and tear down a ramshackle apartment block that had been built on the property. The Martin House was granted National Landmark status in 1986, which kept it permanently safe from demolition. From there, a fundraising campaign for restoration began in earnest, boosted by then-Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Wright champion.

In addition to restoring and fixing up the remaining buildings, the decision was made to bring in an architect who would build a visitor’s center. Toshiko Mori, former head of the Harvard School of Architecture, won the commission and referred to the Martin House as “the Parthenon of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture.” Her addition, a sleek glass box that comes to life with natural light, manages to bring visitors into the Wright mindset without overpowering his work. Some missing bits and bobs that had formerly been inside the house were tracked down on eBay or auction sites like Sotheby’s. The replica of Winged Victory that bolstered one end of the walkway was made from the same mold as the original. Horticulturalist Nellie Gardner has been tasked with recreating the gardens and outdoor spaces at both the Martin House complex and their summer house, which she does by poring over Isabelle Martin’s letters and diaries—a keen gardener, Mrs. Martin often wrote detailed descriptions of what she had planted, where, and why.

Now that the Martin House has officially reopened to the public as a completed, restored Wright masterpiece, what’s next? The “All Wright, All Day” tour takes visitors to five Wright-designed sites in a single day; there are also tours specifically for photographers and events for kids. Besides the Martin House and Graycliff, Wright also designed the Blue Sky Mausoleum in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery, a series of stark marble slabs that resemble a staircase. (Though it, too, was commissioned by Martin, he and Isabelle were eventually buried in a modest, unmarked grave nearby, which now has a new monument funded by Wright fans.) The other two works are the Fontana Boathouse, which Wright originally intended for the University of Wisconsin but was never realized in his lifetime and now rests on the Niagara River less than a mile from the Peace Bridge on the U.S.-Canada border; and a gas station which had been planned for a busy Buffalo intersection and was eventually erected inside the Pierce-Arrow Museum, a showplace for classic cars. Although these three structures were all designed by Wright—with detailed notes about materials and colors, even down to the pink-green-and-gold aesthetic of the gas station—they were not built during his lifetime or under his supervision, which makes some Wright purists dismiss them.

In their affable, self-deprecating way, many Buffalonians can’t believe that the architectural marvel in their backyard will return to glory after all these years. But the Martin House’s resurgence isn’t the only sign that Buffalo is on the rise once again. The land formerly occupied by the Larkin Soap Company is now Larkin Square, a busy, multi-use complex with live music, food trucks, and pickleball (it’s sort of like badminton) courts. The main engineers behind the development are Howard and Leslie Zemsky, a husband-and-wife team who are widely credited for their work revitalizing the city’s central business district. (Howard is now Commissioner of the New York State Department of Economic Development under Gov. Andrew Cuomo and was critical in bringing the “Buffalo Billion” to the city.) The Richardson-Olmsted Complex, a former mental institution co-designed by Central Park mastermind Frederick Law Olmsted, is being converted into the tony Hotel Henry, which opens next spring and brings a much-needed large independent hotel to a city clogged with chains. And on June 8, 2017, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday, New York City’s Museum of Modern Art will launch a huge retrospective dedicated to Wright’s work and his ideas about architecture, design, and urbanism. Where will much of the pieces on display be borrowed from? You guessed it: Buffalo.

Where to eat, drink, stay, and play in Buffalo

Stay: The Mansion on Delaware Avenue, a restored 1869 mansion that has just 14 bedrooms—each slightly different, and some with fireplaces and whirlpool-style bathtubs. A hardworking team of butlers handles everything from luggage storage to dinner reservations, and will chauffeur you anywhere within a three-mile radius via luxury SUV. Make sure you’re there from 5-7 p.m., when there’s a free happy hour in the elegant, art-filled billiard room.

Eat: For a casual lunch, hit The Filling Station, a onetime gas station that is now Larkin Square’s central eatery. Try the upscale take on Buffalo’s beloved beef on weck, or opt for one of the many vegetarian-friendly dishes like a rotating quiche of the day. By night, Buffalo-via-Louisiana chef James Roberts brings Cajun flavors to his restaurant Toutant. Opt for hush puppies and the cayenne-pepper fried chicken, paired with a classy take on a NOLA-style Hurricane.

Drink: Buffalo’s craft beer scene is on the rise. The two biggest names are Big Ditch and Flying Bison, both of which have taprooms in town. The newly opened Lakeward Spirits in the up-and-coming First Ward neighborhood makes its own vodka and infusions and will soon be adding gins and Scottish-style whiskys to the mix. Everything is made with New York State produce, and the huge, airy loft space also hosts events.

Play: If you haven’t been all Wright-ed out, sign up for a downtown Buffalo architecture tour to admire some of the city’s classics, notably the Art Deco city hall and the Louis Sullivan-designed Guaranty building, Buffalo’s first skyscraper. The world-class Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which just scored a nearly $100 million endowment to expand and upgrade its facilities, has everything from Van Gogh to Kahlo to Pollock in its rich collection—head up to see the permanent piece by Sol LeWitt, which loops around the top of the staircase.