If you happen to be traveling in and out of the Buffalo Airport, stop in to the Gallery and check out the exhibit of photos of the restoration of the Hotel Lafayette. Thousands of people travel through this place each day, and the gallery is nicely located next to the food court, and security entrance and exit.  If the number of people who stopped by to look while I was hanging the show is any indication of how many will stop in, there could be a lot of people  introduced to this  great new Buffalo Landmark.

The long bar along the wall is still in place, and the foyer still has a large fireplace made of Travertine marble. The front room closest to the lobby was for a time a coffee shop. This space is now being totally redone by the folks of Pearl Street Brewery. walls have been removed which will open the space at the back and toward the lobby. A mezzanine is being installed which will provide great sitelines to the lower level.

In typical Pearl Street fashion, levels are being built through this space. Tese levels are roughly 6-12 inches high and will be seating areas. The Tap Room will now be known as The Pan American Grill and Brewery and will be one of the largest restarants in the hotel.

In the first room the ceiling has been repaired and the floor is being restored.

The lounge area is where the two paintings of Lafayette  have been restored. For now, this is where the plaster pieces are remade. Molds and newly created pieces are everywhere, just waiting to rejoin the beautiful detail inside the Lafayette.

At one end of the room is a curved stage area. This curved area was added during another renovation in 1924-26. Behind the stage is an actors green room area, stairs to the upper floors and basement, and conveyer that tool dishes into the basement.

There were three small windows boarded up which have now been reopened to their original size.

Damage to the ceiling was extensive.  The plaster beams were removed, the damaged ones replaced, and a new system was put in place to support the new beams and ceiling.

Unlike the floors in other areas of the hotel, the floor in the ballroom is wooden. One speculation is that when this addition was built, the owners could not afford a tile floor and used the cheaper covering of hardwood.

Here’s a video of what is going on in the ballroom.

The Pink Room

The Hotel Lafayette has lots of beautiful and in some cases, rare wood throughout. The Dutch Grill, for example was originally built with Flemish oak walls. Large expanses of the walls in the ballroom foyer and former auto club,  which were painted many times over, have now been stripped, hand finished and returned to their original beauty. The coatrooms, built with solid mahogany, are coming back, and the doors that greeted people to the ballrooms have been stripped of a rainbow of colors from Pepto- Bismal pink, to green, to white, and will once again welcome amazed guests to this palace.

If you have ever done any kind of refinishing, you know what a time consuming, painstaking task this is. Well imagine hand refinishing several dozen doors, and feet and  feet of wall space. All of this done by hand just as you would with the one door at your home. This is typical of  the work  being done at the Lafayette Hotel. Much of the work that is being done is a slow, meticulous process, done by an army of craftsmen and women. Each detail has been researched, redone and will be ready for the May 1 opening.

The architects, Carmina, Woods & Morris, have spent hours crawling above ceilings, under floor spaces and through every nook and cranny of this building to unearth the Lafayette’s secrets. They have done paint tests to determine what the original color schemes may have been, and all of their work and knowledge has been shared with the many craftspeople who take that information and with their skills recreate Bethune’s legacy.

This is an exciting place to work. You can feel the pride and satisfaction everyone has for being part of this historic revival. For Buffalo, this is the largest, privately financed project in our history. For the world, beginning May 1, 2012, this is a chance to step into one of the top 15 hotels of 1904.

Refinished doors

Number of companies working at the Hotel: 30

Number of people working at the Hotel:  average of 150 -250

Number of hours needed to restore the ceilings and woodwork: 8,000

Number of gallons of paint:  1800

Number of  buckets of plaster:  Several hundred cubic yards

This mural depicts a fighter plane flying over Buffalo Airport

There are two murals in the lobby, the fighter plane and one that shows the Buffalo River and lake freighters with a canyon of grain elevators. These murals are made of inlaid wood and are known as intarsia. Very similar to marquetry, this is a technique that uses pieces of wood, often in different colors and even different woods,  put together in patterns.

The coat check room boasted its solid mahogany interior. After hours of work it has been brought back to its original richness.

One tile at a time