The design team for the Richardson Olmsted Complex rehabilitation, led by Flynn Battaglia Architects as Executive Architect and working with Deborah Berke Partners of New York and Goody Clancy of Boston, has completed the Design Development Phase of the project. Throughout the phase, the team has collaborated with Richardson Olmsted Complex board members, the hotel operator, surrounding institutions, and community stakeholders to refine the design. Groundbreaking is expected to occur this summer.
The Richardson Olmsted Complex is one of four National Historic Landmark properties in the Buffalo area that Flynn Battaglia Architects has or is in the process of rehabilitating. National Historic Landmarks are the highest designation of historic property in the United States and represent the top 2% of historic structures in the country, and thus require an especially skilled eye during rehabilitation. The Richardson Olmsted Complex was constructed as the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane in 1872 and was designed by noted Boston architect H.H. Richardson to the design philosophies of influential 19th-century physician Thomas Kirkbride. In this project, the central “towers” building and the first flanking former ward building on either side will be rehabilitated into a boutique hotel, events and conference center, and the Buffalo Architecture Center.
