On the QT | The Official Newsletter of GWA December 2016 - January 2017 | Página 3

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y B U F FA LO O L M S T E D PA R K S C O N S E R VA N C Y

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y B U F FA LO O L M S T E D PA R K S C O N S E R VA N C Y

— Buffalo, continued from page 1

NE W ES T AT T R AC T IO N
One of Buffalo’s newest historic attractions is the Richardson-Olmsted Complex, designed in the
late 1800s by landscape architect Henry Hobson Richardson in concert with Olmsted and Calvert
Vaux. Used for decades as the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, this once-neglected building is
a treasure—the grounds and garden restoration now in progress. Finally, garden writers must visit
the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, with its historic Lord & Burnham glass conservatory,
plant collections from around the world and an attached Olmsted arboretum.
With this depth of content, what is a tour committee to do? These “culturals” and so many others
offer two- and three-hour tours. We have only so many hours for touring. The good news: These
organizations are led by classy, big-picture individuals, who have come together to embrace the
GWA event. They are meeting with me and partners from Visit Buffalo Niagara, figuring out how to
show the best possible glimpses of their individual treasures—it can only be a glimpse of each. But
that is the point: Our hosting organizations want garden writers to see enough to write about them.
Then they (and we) hope the writers will come back and bring others.
The Horticultural Heritage Tour, now in draft form, will be an approximately five-hour tour during
which four to six busloads of garden communicators will rotate among four cultural/horticultural
sites with onsite presenters and tour directors. Lunch will be included in one of them. Does it sound
easy? Perhaps not, but with cooperative supporting staff and volunteers, it can be done. At least
that’s the plan—in progress.

Sally Cunningham is the GWA Local Arrangements Chair for Buffalo 2017, and she says this is written
with deep appreciation for organizers, helpers and for you—who won’t want to miss this one!

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y J I M C H A R L I E R

THE HO RT IC U LT U R AL H E R I TAG E TO U R
Buffalo’s identity is built on the shoulders of shipping magnates, flour and steel industrialists,
turn-of-the-20th century millionaires as well as the architects and landscape architects who
designed their homes, parks and boulevards. The city is deeply indebted to Frederick Law Olmsted
who built a park system and series of boulevards (passing through Millionaire’s Row) that lead
to Hoyt Lake and the Delaware Park Rose Garden.
Frank Lloyd Wright has a huge presence in western New York as well. Visitors flock to Wright’s
Martin House Complex—one of the finest examples of Prairie House