Buffalo Museum of Science - Table of Contents

The Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Parkway near Northhampton, Buffalo NY

Visitor Information
Buffalo Museum of Science Official Home Page



ERECTED:

1929
The museum's parent body is the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, founded in 1861

ARCHITECTS:

Esenwein & Johnson

STYLE:

Neoclassical

TEXT Beneath Illustrations


Click on illustrations for larger size -- and additional information

Neoclassical style

Decorative metal panel in front of transom window

Wall sconce

Consoles with decorative acanthus leaf

Terra-cotta griffins in frieze

Corinthian capital with decorative acanthus leaves

Terra-cotta spandrel panel

Detail: terra-cotta spandrel panel with Greek key border

The museum sits in a corner of "The Parade," later Humboldt and still later Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park, which originally had been designed by Olmsted and Vaux as part of Buffalo's Olmsted Park system.

The museum was dedicated after some unpleasantness about a mayoral committee of inquiry into charges of shoddy construction.

The Museum has a 200-foot-long facade and is 190 feet deep. The long, horizontal building appears to be two stories high and set on a high base, but actually it contains four floors ñ a high lower floor with three stories over it. Hiding the number of stories on the exterior permitted the architect to simplify the facade and give elegant treatment to tall windows. The total cost of the building exceeded $1 million.

The museum contained ten halls around a central court, and was one of the first science museums in the country to arrange exhibits in "story-line" form.

The observatory dome was added later, and an even profound change came in recent years when a new Science Magnet School was constructed to the rear of the building.



Photos and their arrangement © 2003 Chuck LaChiusa
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