A daily dose of local architecture, in blog form

By Jennifer Wutz-Lopes

Blogs tend to focus on a particular subject, such as food, entertainment, or local politics. A typical blog combines journal entries and graphics or images and offers links to other blogs, web pages, and additional media related to the topic or topics at hand. People blog for all sorts of reasons. Some post baby pictures or write about what infuriates them, some blog for a specific cause or hobby. Personally, I blog because I love to talk about what peeves me and makes me happy, and also to brag about my genius son and to embarrass my poor husband. My words mainly mean nothing to anyone but me, but that’s not the case for the people profiled here.

David A. Steele, a self-proclaimed “architecture junkie,” is one of the more prolific posters in the “City” section of BuffaloRising (buffalorising.com). An architect, Steele lives in Chicago but grew up in Buffalo’s Elmwood Village neighborhood and frequently posts short writeups about his fondness for the Buffalo area and many of his favorite buildings. Included are buildings as diverse as One M&T Plaza (“an elegant addition to Buffalo’s streets”) and the Tent City building (“equal to any palace”). He often advocates for saving certain buildings slated for demolition. If you are unfamiliar with some of the more unknown beauties in Buffalo’s neighborhoods, I suggest you check out his blog entries (he’s been posting since late 2005) on Buffalo Rising.

Maxigumee Land
Maxigumee Land, www.maxigumee.com.
Maxwell Tielman grew up in a household where architecture was part of his daily life. Both his parents worked for the Buffalo Preservation Coalition for several years and are now with the Campaign for Greater Buffalo. Tielman’s blog, Maxigumee Land (www.maxigumee.com), is chock-full of his thoughts on fashion, art, and Martha Stewart, and includes a number of stunning photographs of buildings in Buffalo. Check out the images in his “Landmark Series,” a fashion photo shoot held at the H-O Oats Grain Elevator and the Richardson Towers aimed at displaying endangered buildings around Buffalo. As Tielman noted on his blog, “Instead of selling clothing, we would be selling the buildings. … Please don’t demolish us!” While he is not involved in saving Buffalo’s treasures in an irate protester/picket-sign-carrying manner, he feels he is doing his part by publicizing local landmarks through his site. Tielman, who has been blogging since late 2003, is a senior at City Honors and will be attending the Pratt Institute this fall.

Amy Maxwell is the chairperson of Revitalize Buffalo, a group that is dedicated to keeping college graduates in Buffalo. She loves Buffalo and loves to blog about the city’s finer points on the Revitalize Buffalo blog (revitalizebuffalo.wnymedia.net). Maxwell says that Buffalo is an “architect’s dream city to live in … We have buildings from Richardson, Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright.” In one recent post, titled “There’s Something About Buffalo,” she waxes poetic about our art deco treasure at 65 Niagara Square, writing, “It’s one of the buildings that defines this city. … If you think of great architectural gems, you think City Hall.” Maxwell is tired of the bad rap that Buffalo gets, even from people who live here, and is working to change that. She feels that blogging gives her the opportunity to share the exciting developments and events going on around town. I check out the Revitalize Buffalo blog regularly, just to see what she has to say (she posts as “View From the Bottom”) and to admire the images of some of the more beautiful structures in Buffalo, posted by her and a co-blogger, John Carocci (“The Why Not Guy”). The blog has been active for about a year, and I believe that Maxwell and Carocci will most likely never run out of good things to write about.

There are several other local blogs that incorporate observations and photos related to architecture in Buffalo. Eric Shepherd is currently working towards a master’s degree in architecture at the University at Buffalo. His blog, Arkitrave (arkitrave.com/log), contains a number of architecture-related posts, including a discussion of his master’s thesis. The Greater Buffalo Blog contains posts from Tim Tielman and other members of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo. The campaign has a number of goals, including the preservation, protection, and enhancement of culturally significant buildings and structures in Erie and Niagara counties. You can read more at www.greaterbuffalo.blogs.com. Jessica Keltz blogs as “Soul of Buffalo” and offers her perspective on what’s what in the city (soulofbuffalo.livejournal.com). You’ll enjoy her “pedestrian’s-eye view” of Buffalo, especially focused on Allentown and the West Village area.

We are all lucky to be living in the architectural museum that is Buffalo, New York, a city that offers a regular fix of eye candy for those who appreciate beauty in architecture.


Jennifer Wutz-Lopes really likes Georgian revival architecture. She lives in Lockport with her
husband and son, and blogs at www.Jen14221.com


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