Date published: 2007/07/24
Buffalo is a city which was thriving once upon a time, as is witnessed by its great turn-of-the-century buildings, such as the Ellicott Square Building and the Guaranty Building, and later buildings, such as half a dozen Frank Lloyd Wright houses. But now Buffalo is seemingly in decline. There are dozens of buildings right in the downtown which are or look derelict or semi-derelict. Apparently the population is still decreasing, although some of the nearby suburbs are thriving (well, where would you rather live, in a leafy suburban house with a decent plot or in a downtown apartment block surrounded by concrete and asphalt). Hopefully the good downtown buildings will be saved and somehow thrive. The Ellicott Square Building is in good shape and the Guaranty Building is being restored. Some of the other buildings (e.g. a wonderful Art Deco building at Court Street and Delaware Avenue) do not seem to be so well looked after.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the country, Orlando seems to be thriving today. This is mostly due to Disney World and all the other amusement parks which subsequently opened up in the area. No doubt most people visit Orlando for the amusement parks. But there are other, more compelling, reasons to visit central Florida.
First there is the Kennedy Space Center, on the coast, an hour's drive east of Orlando. They have made a real effort to promote their work with their visitor complex and site tours, far above and beyond anything you would ever see in Britain from a government agency. Not surprisingly most of the films portray the successes and the smiles. But there are also a couple of digs at NASA. In the IMAX "Walking on the Moon 3D" with narrator Tom Hanks, they show (no doubt carefully filtered) "interviews" with children where most of them cannot even name a single astronaut (and the rest only know of Neil Armstrong). And in a film at the Apollo / Saturn V Center they show various American rockets blowing up at launch, in response to the Soviet Sputnik and later successes. (One newspaper headline mentions "Flopnik", although there are not many Americans who would remember that fraught start to the American rocket program.) And in another film at that center, they show an astronaut singing a nursery rhyme ("I was walking on the moon one day"), which pretty much symbolises why the Apollo program was axed early (what is the point of spending billions of dollars just so that a few men can sing silly songs on the moon). Perhaps the most impressive exhibit on display is the Saturn V rocket in that building. Those were bloody big rockets. And to think they put it all together in a few years. NASA would never be able to do that today (currently they are planning to get back to the moon around 2020).
In Lakeland, an hour's drive southwest of Orlando, Florida Southern College has around a dozen (depending how you count) buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, apparently the largest single-site collection of Wright buildings anywhere. For some reason this site does not gather that much attention (e.g. there is not even a book about the site, although one is being written). It seems that there was some fallout which meant that some of the Wright faithful have tried to eliminate Florida Southern from the Wright lexicon. Whatever, any Wright fan would be crazy not to pay a visit if they are anywhere near Lakeland. The best building is the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel (constructed from 1939 to 1941). The site is currently being renovated. There is also a covered walkway (an "esplanade") connecting the Wright buildings. In true Wright style this is so low as to feel claustrophobic, but does provide protection from the rain. (And Florida does seem to get lots of rain, in spite of pretending to be the sunshine state.)
Not far from Disney World is Celebration, which was Disney's attempt to recreate the allegedly wonderful life in 1950s America. (The same nostalgia exists in certain quarters in Britain.) Not surprisingly, the city is rather anodyne, with no real shops and no great architecture (but at least the houses are not identical, even if they share a similar turn-of-the-millennium feel, and all have their yards cut in exactly the same way). Apparently a lot of the housing is empty. In spite of that, it seems that other new cities copying the Celebration idea are being created.
Another hidden gem near Orlando is the Morse Museum, located in Winter Park (a very posh suburb of Orlando). The museum is not huge, but has a fantastic collection of work by (Louis Comfort) Tiffany, including, spectacularly, a chapel interior which Tiffany exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (it later was at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York and afterwards was situated at Tiffany's summer house, Laurelton Hall, on Long Island, before being rescued from neglect by Hugh F. McKean, the museum's founder). In addition to the work by Tiffany, the museum also has some other Art Nouveau (including some glass and a desk by Gallé) and Arts and Crafts work.
Of course no matter where you are in America, they serve you far too much food. A single meal or portion is more than adequate for two. It is no wonder they have an obesity problem.
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