February 1996 Table Of Contents
A new proposal for Richardson buildings
By Rebecca Randall
As a fifth year student of architecture at Cornell University, I must propose a thesis and follow it through the preliminary design stages. I have made the reuse of the Richardson buildings my thesis. I propose for consideration that the primary buildings of the complex, those designed by Richardson himself (as opposed to outlying buildings designed by E.B. Green and others), be used as an extension of Buffalo State College's Department of Psychology in the form of an Art Therapy school and outpatient clinic. This would work in conjunction with the current Buffalo Psychiatric Center as well as with the Albright-Knox. In addition to this would be a gallery of patients' art and a museum of the building itself.
Some thoughts influencing my proposal are:1) Due to unenlightened stereotypes and stigmatization of psychiatric centers, one might surmise an outside organization or institution without first-hand experience would be reluctant to set up shop on the (former) grounds;
2) The area around the Richardson site is very active. Within easy walking distance, and in view of each other, are Buffalo State College, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, the present Buffalo Psychiatric Center, and middle and upper class housing.These resources demand assimilation and use as a basis for a State Hospital re-use plan.
3) The Buffalo State College campus reportedly needs more building space.
The difficulties of reuse and revitalization are varied. The hospital, designed by H. H. Richardson, provided treatments and care for the mentally ill of the late 1800s and early-to-mid 1900s. The treatments prescribed then are now often thought brutal and primitive. This common view of early psychiatric institutions may be transferred to the perception of the buildings themselves, coloring the desire to assume responsibility for upkeep.
Unenlightened developers and businesses may harbor stigmas of the mentally ill. The buildings in question are in proximity to the functioning Buffalo Psychiatric Center. This may deter proposals relying on housing,. such as apartments and condominiums, to which this type of building would be an almost ideal.
Richardson’s design followed the Kirkbride system of organization, with administrative functions placed in the center and ward buildings stepping away in a V-formation. Patients were evaluated and placed in buildings according to the severity of their ailments. The most ill and “socially unacceptable” were placed farthest from the pseudo-public administration building. As they improved, patients moved up the wings, eventually skipping out the center doors as socially acclimated.
The Office of Mental Health, in its maintenance practices, has left a pattern of architectural triage which mirrors the ideological intentions of the original plan. The three wards (Male Wards C, D, and E) on the eastern extremity were demolished and built over in the 1970s. Outbuildings, such as the greenhouse and music hall, have been allowed to collapse to their foundations. The two brick-faced pavilions on the extreme west end are considered by some as financially “non-restorable” for occupancy. They were abandoned in the 1970s and suffered burst water pipes in the Blizzard of 1977. The Administration Building, the solid center, is still in good condition and could be readily occupied.
My proposal seeks to incorporate the school/clinic into the Administration Building and wards immediately adjacent. The two pavilions farthest to the west, toward Rees Street, presently uninhabitable, can still be utilized to retain the original intention of the complex. Here is where the galleries and museum, not meant for occupation, can rise out of the ‘ruins’ of the old institution. It is even possible that sections not be climate controlled, the better for society to appreciate the passage between the old and the new, to judge and wonder, to fear and to, perhaps, come closer to understanding.
Stabilized architectural ruins are strewn across the globe– the Roman Coliseum, the Acropolis, the Pyramids, Angor Wat, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Stonehenge, any number of forts and castles, and, in fact, Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls. They serve as the cenotaphs of entire societies past.
Whether educational tools or mere spectacles, who are we to strike them down?
