The Richardson Olmsted Complex, with its iconic twin-towered administration building and grounds planned by the famous designers of the day, was considered "the greatest architectural expression" of the latest ideas in mental health treatment when it was built in the latter half of the 19th century.

A hundred years later the site originally christened the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane and lately called the Buffalo Psychiatric Center had been downsized, neglected and eventually abandoned. It was a brick-and-stone albatross around the neck of a financially troubled city and state, a parcel of land envied by developers likely to put profit before preservation... It's taken nearly three decades of steps forward and back, but finally it looks as if the Richardson complex, stolid and serene through its stagnancy, will survive and flourish in this 21st century.

To view the rest of this story by Maria Scrivani see page 14 in the Summer 2008 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!