Many of Kirkbride’s other asylums around the country have either been torn down or have fallen into disrepair since this form of mental health treatment fell out of favor in the 1970s. This idea was reinforced by Kirkbride’s plan to create an environment conducive to the healing process. It showed that the asylum, and the city of Buffalo, was capable of caring for those with mental illness and could provide a safe haven for patients. Krolewicz, a certified planner with expertise in historic preservation and adaptive reuse, says that Richardson’s imposing, institutional design-particularly the main building’s two iconic towers-was very much intentional. “We think of that as a time when Buffalo was in a position to start thinking about social issues.” The word “asylum” may have negative connotations today, but “it was actually really meaningful to have what was called an ‘asylum’ in your community at that time because it meant that you were a big enough city to take care of people,” Krolewicz says. “It was built in the late 1800s when Buffalo was really having its heyday,” says Christine Krolewicz, the manager of planning and operations for the Richardson Olmsted Campus. Working with Kirkbride’s plans, the men tried to use architecture and landscape design to create a space conducive to treating mental illnesses. Olmsted, popularly known as the father of American landscape architecture, designed some of the most famous parks around the country, including New York City’s Central Park. Richardson, a prominent American architect, pioneered the style referred to as Richardsonian Romanesque, an interpretation of 11th- and 12th-century Roman design. | Photo: Elizabeth Yuko Innovative designĬonstruction on the complex began in 1872 and the process brought together three innovative thinkers and designers of the time: Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Dr. But more than offering a stunning before-and-after comparison, exploring the Richardson Olmsted Campus also provides an intimate glimpse into the complicated history of mental health care in the U.S.Īrt outside the entrance. Public tours take visitors through two of the vacant buildings and into a renovated corridor of Hotel Henry. There are 13 buildings in the complex: Three have been repurposed into a luxury hotel and the remaining 10 are still in a state of suspended ruin, abandoned since 1974. Unlike many of the other former asylums currently surrounded by rusting fences and “No trespassing” signs, the grounds and several buildings of the Richardson Olmsted Campus are open to the public. On a recent trip to Buffalo, New York, I decided to confront my own fears and visit the Richardson Olmsted Campus, once home to the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. The fact that many of these locations now sit abandoned doesn’t help-nor do the stories of overcrowding that circulated before deinstitutionalization began in the mid-1970s. Abandoned asylum tv#Through horror movies and TV shows, we’re often conditioned to think of former psychiatric hospital facilities as places to fear.
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