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All images by Opacity
Abandoned Church of Transfiguration, Buffalo
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So beautiful. I hope it can be restored and used for some good purpose.
Thank you, Vatican II
Bautiful ! In Europe, such a building would already be restored into a hotel, a restaurant, a theater, a night club. Such a good oportunity can’t be lost.
The problem, Stephane, is that Buffalo (which is in Western NY) is an economic dumpster. There are many grand abandoned buildings there, including several other elegant churches (though this is the largest), an amazing central train station, and countless others.
Vast swaths of homes in the city are abandoned as well, and rotting. There’s no drive for redevelopment because there’s no one there who would be able to afford going to the hotel, restaurant, theater, or night club (there are already too many of these things around for the area to support as it is).
It’s perhaps not as epically bad as Detroit, but it’s close.
I am from a suburb of Buffalo, but like every young person who is able to, left for opportunities elsewhere (California in my case).
Thanks for this incite chris! I visited buffalo once in early 80s when I was young. It is unfortunate that like detroit, buffalo’s days of industrial success are gone.
Hey Stephane Adam!
Check out these pictures from East Prussia. The last time I checked, East Prussia was in Europe.
http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/06/abandoned-demyanskoe-east-prussia/
Two things to consider.
1. New York, being a union state, has done a good job of chasing manufacturing jobs away from Buffalo and its other industrial centers, and thus leading to the abandonment of the city. The only real manufacturing that is being carried out in this country now is in “right-to-work” states. New York now depends on its financial services industry, which in fact, is no industry at all.
2. The fact that it is no longer fashionable for high-brow people such as yourself to attend church makes it easy to see why this church is crumbling. If the people in this community had really wanted it, they could have likely kept this church in service. I have no doubt that other factors are involved, but I suspect the number one thing that caused this church to fall into this state of disrepair is the fact that there is such a dramatic decline in church attendance around this place.
Don’t get me wrong. It breaks my heart too. But suggesting that it be turned into a hotel, nightclub, theatre or restaurant is the equivalent of saying “Let them eat cake”.
Though I am not sure what the status is of this building, I can tell you that Buffalo is currently in the middle of a huge push for restoration and preservation throughout the region. Buildings across the city, for several years now, have been bought, rehabbed and reused at an alarming rate. Several national and international conferences have used Buffalo as the poster-child for this process.
Granted, Buffalo still remains the 3rd poorest city in the nation, but it is hardly devoid of people who care and is, in fact, at the moment driven by passionate people who are making it a modern-day frontier for those wishing to make their mark in any number of growing industries.
Chris, I too grew up in Buffalo, and am sad to hear that you feel so strongly and should make a trip back home to see the change for yourself.
Am I correct that this building is safe to go into and photograph? I am a little scared of what will be inside.
Though expressed caustically, Guildry has a point. I do notice, now that he mentions it, most dying or abandoned cities in the US are PRECISELY where unions were the strongest.
Food for thought definitely.
I have spent some time photgraphing the beautiful Art Nouveau buildings of Buffalo, a place once called, ‘The Queen City’. Even though I am Canadian, I spent (as did my mother, who grew up in Fort Erie)a lot of time in the US, in Buffalo in particular.
It’s a shame so much of this beautiful city is in peril; it really is similar to the plight of Detroit, with the pull of the suburbs causing the centre to decay. However, this is not even unique to the US- Canada has its own share of this kind of abandoment in manufacturing-based cities like Hamilton, Welland and others. Even Toronto lost large amounts of Art Deco buildings not to decay, but ‘progress’.
It’s hard to reinvent a city that has been any one thing for a long time, especially when everyone is caught up in remembering the glory days instead of worrying about what comes next.
Unfortunately, for Buffalo, like my own hometown, there is no easy answer. When there are many who aren’t able to ‘heat or eat’, along with a rapidly aging population (who were the backbones of churches) it spells trouble. Check the real estate listings…there are sadly many, many churches up for sale. I wish I had the resources to rescue more buildings myself.
Heather and Guidry- The fact that you chose to use a page dedicated to the juxtaposition of old religious glory and economic despair as a platform for union bashing, only attests to what lows people will go to push their political agendas. Please take a moment and consider that while unions pushed for working class people to be guaranteed living wages, the CEO’s pushed the companies out of the country to guarantee themselves million dollar payouts. I will not go into more detail, as this is not the time nor place. And Guidry, perhaps if the “Christians” chose to use these buildings instead of building asthetically ugly and obscenely large mega-churches in the suburbs, these places would not have fallen into such disrepair.
Sammy- thank you! Buffalo has a bad rap, but as you know we’re working hard to change it. The arts scene is greatest in the country for a city this size, and the medical corridor is coming along nicely. Of course, people like you and I should keep it to ourselves…. We wouldn’t want too many out-of-towners coming in and taking advantage of the incredibly affordable victorian houses, restaurants, and social scene we have to offer…..
Personally, I wish I had the wherewithal to take a beautiful neglected building like this and restore it. It could make a fantastic home done with respect to its history the the care that went into its creation.