Mary Roberts is executive director at Martin House Restoration.
What is the significance of this milestone year in the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House Complex?
In a city of architectural treasures, the Darwin D. Martin House Complex ranks as one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s finest residential designs. Consisting of the main Martin House, smaller Barton House, gardener’s cottage, carriage house, and spectacular glass-roofed conservatory linked to the main house by a 100-foot pergola, this singular composition is complemented by Wright’s extensive furnishings, art glass, landscape and decorative elements.
After 15 years, restoration of the estate will be completed late this summer. In 2017, the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth, the tremendous breadth and scope of his legacy here in New York and across America will be the subject of a national celebration. The associated tours, programs, events, educational exhibitions and conferences will raise the profile of the Buffalo region as an American epicenter of architecture and design.
Wright has esteemed company in Buffalo—what makes the city so architecturally significant?
In the early 1900s, when Buffalo was one of the wealthiest cities in America, the masterworks created here represented a new, distinctly American form of architecture and influenced design throughout the world. Boasting significant buildings by Louis Sullivan, Henry Hobson Richardson, Eliel and Eero Saarinen, and Daniel Burnham, plus landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted, the city is an outdoor museum of world-class architecture. Adding to the region’s multiple Wright designs, we also have the Arts & Crafts legacy of Elbert Hubbard and the Roycroft Campus in nearby East Aurora.
How do these treasures enhance the Buffalo experience for visiting groups?
Welcoming, accessible, affordable, walkable, bikeable and hip, Buffalo is an unexpected joy for first-time visitors. As the city’s proud tradition of investing in architecture continues to this day, Wright remains an international “brand-name” and magnet for tourism. For the first time in generations, The Martin House is open to the public, with the new visitor’s center, and Barton House and gardener’s cottage, available for groups. Along with his architectural fellows, Wright’s legacy continues to serve the city well.