Buffalo News November 21, 2002
City&Region > Erie County
PRESERVATION
Terminal being readied for public use
By TOM BUCKHAM
News Staff Reporter
11/21/2002
Predicting "people will fall in love with the building all over again," the head of the group restoring the Central Terminal said the East Side landmark will be ready for a public event next summer.
Russell E. Pawlak said work to seal the tower from the elements and clean up the interior has been largely completed under a $1 million county grant, setting the stage for Central Terminal Restoration Corp. to begin to restore the building to its former grandeur.
"We have begun the process of rectifying the historic wrong done to this landmark building," he said.
Over summer and fall, volunteers removed about 300 tons of debris from the inside, covered long-broken tower and concourse windows with plexiglass, and painted plywood, repaired the roof and cleaned storm drains.
By year's end, more debris will be removed from the mezzanine, graffiti will be erased from the interior, masonry repairs will be made to the tower, and art deco canopies over the entrances will be fixed, Pawlak said.
"The immediate goal is to have the interior ready for a public event in the summer of 2003," he said.
The repair money was set aside in late 1999 by then-County Executive Dennis T. Gorski, but was held up after the restoration group sued the city over damage from truckloads of plowed snow dumped on the East Side property after the November 2000 storm.
The suit was dropped in December after the city agreed to forgive nearly $70,000 in back taxes and related fees inherited by the restoration corporation when it took title to the terminal in 1997.
Speaking at a news conference outside the Paderewski Drive complex, Pawlak praised County Executive Joel A. Giambra, Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga, and other elected officials for standing behind the restoration plan.
No additional public or private money has been lined up, but the project will move ahead with money saved on the recent repairs, Pawlak said.
"We were about $100,000 under budget. A lot of the anticipated plumbing work wasn't necessary," he said.
The 17-story terminal, designed by noted railroad architects Fellheimer and Wagner, opened in 1929 and in its heyday handled more than 200 New York Central Railroad passenger trains a day. Passenger travel fell after World War II, and Conrail sold the building to private owners in 1979.
The property lay abandoned and deteriorating for nearly two decades before the nonprofit restoration group bought it in 1997.
"We still believe the opportunity for redevelopment is here," Giambra told reporters.
"One hundred years from now, people are going to thank us for having the vision to save this building," said Fillmore Council Member David A. Franczyk, who over the last five years has secured $95,000 in city funds for the restoration. He expects it to become a prominent stop on Western New York's future cultural tourism trail.
e-mail: tbuckham@buffnews.com