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2012 Annual Meeting

Following the successful Preservation Plus Conference, this year PBN invites members to the annual meeting and more! We are thrilled to be offering an exciting new venue for this year's event:  The Culinary Institute of Niagara County Community College that opened in downtown Niagara Falls in September of this year. The event will include tours of the new school as well as a wine tasting. Hors d'oeuvres and desserts prepared in the Culinary Institute's kitchens will be served. 

Additionally there will be the opportunity for our members attending the event to come early and visit three nearby historic sites: the United Office Building (1929) and the Hotel Niagara (1925), both designed by Esenwein and Johnson, and Olmsted and Vaux's 1881 Niagara Reservation (Niagara Falls State Park). The United Office Building recently underwent a historic rehab by Ellicott Development and opened as the Giacomo Hotel.  The Hotel Niagara is in the early stages of a historic rehab by Stinson Development. All three properties are in walking distance of the Culinary Institute and the Niagara Reservation will be offering trolley tours of the park. Site visits may take place between 4pm and 6pm and the Annual Meeting will take place from 6pm to 7:30pm.

Please RSVP to info@p-b-n.org or call 716-852-3300.    

Nominated candidates for 2012-13 Board of Trustees

Catherine F. Schweitzer
Monica Pellegrino Faix
Cindy Gorski
Thomas Knab

  Preservation Buffalo Niagara ~ Annual Meeting 

2011 Annual Meeting

Over 300 members of Preservation Buffalo Niagara attended our 2011 Annual Meeting, held in the Terrace Room of the Statler Building, on Monday, November 14, 2011.  Starting at 6:30, there were refreshments, a chance to explore the Statler Building and Art+ Preservation, an exhibit/reception with Painting for Preservation artists. The Annual Meeting itself started at 7:15 and included a brief business meeting, election of Trustees, a retrospective on the National Preservation Conference, thanks for those that helped, and remarks from Statler developer, Mark Croce.

Election of Trustees: Elected to their first full three-year term were:
Eric Stenclik, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Canisius College, where he has worked for 15 years. Eric was educated at Columbia, Yale, and the University of Toronto.  Laura Monte, partner with HodgsonRuss with extensive experience in finance and real estate law. She attended St. Lawrence University and Syracuse University College of Law.  Both Eric and Laura join the board earlier in 2011 to fill board vacancies. 

Elected for their 2nd three-year term are Terrence Robinson, Joy McDuffie, Lynn Stievater, and Steven Weiss.

This June 6, 2011 article on Buffalo Rising reviews the Buffalo preservation movement and recent PBN activities-- Why didn't "THEY" do something?" by David Steele.

Preservation Buffalo Niagara is a membership organization with over 1000 individual and family members, plus civic, foundation and corporate supporters. Our mission is to identify, preserve, protect, promote and revitalize historically architecturally significant sites, structures, neighborhoods, commercial districts and landscapes in western New York. While we are new, our Programs are growing.

When PBN was formed, an ambitious list of objectives were developed; a November 2010 review of these objectives shows the tremendous progress we have made.

In October, 2008, the members of the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier and the Preservation Coalition of Erie County unanimously voted to join forces. The members also approved PBN Bylaws and Mission Statement. The success of our first year was summarized in this 2009 Chairman's report.

Two main factors emerged to create a catalyst for change. A growing recognition of Buffalo’s significant architecture culminated in the city’s selection for the 2011 National Preservation Conference. A call to action came in February 2008 with a disturbing consultant’s report (.pdf) that stated that Buffalo desperately needed a more unified, significantly improved preservation movement.

Over the next 18 months, Preservation Buffalo Niagara created the foundation for the most substantial preservation and staff ever assembled to advance historic preservation in the Buffalo region. This staff, PBN Trustees, volunteers and supporters are dedicated to utilizing historic preservation as a significant tool to advance Buffalo and its region.