Aud demise whetted appetite for destruction

  

A couple poses for wedding pictures in front the exposed guts of Memorial Auditorium in early June. Photo by Colin Dabkowski.

I was riding my bike yesterday, as I often do, past the craggy remains of Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium on my way to work. No sooner had I locked up my ride to the rack outside The News than I heard a thundering crash, and looked up just quick enough to catch the cloud of dust and dirt that signified the final, official demise of the storied edifice on Buffalo's burgeoning waterfront.

At certain points during the demolition, the Aud looked a lot like a target of the war it was built to memorialize. But yesterday, the long project, the messy evisceration that seemed to drag on for moths (because it actually dragged on for more than a year), the painful vision of crumbling concrete and fractured steel, had finally reached its protracted end.

Having observed the destruction almost day by day, like many of my colleagues, what struck me most were not the incremental physical changes the building underwent from the start of the demolition to its completion yesterday. Riding past the building, no matter the time of day or night, I always saw at least a few onlookers who'd come to be in the presence of the building's iineffable and epic denouement.

Some came simply to gawk at the building, others to take a few snapshots for posterity, and some to genuinely reminisce about moments they spent in the nosebleeds, drinking gallons of Molson and shouting boozy benedictions or obscenities at the likes of Gilbert Perreault and Pat LaFontaine. Nostalgia surely had something to do with it, but more than anything the crowds seemed to be motivated by something a lot simpler: an entirely healthy appetite for destruction.

Visually, there's something innately impressive about the intentional dis-assembly of something with as much cultural, social and physical impact (say what you will about its design) as the city's Memorial Auditorium. It's a conscious decision to do away with a cultural symbol that for one reason or another has shed the bulk of its meaning. And when that decision is in the throes of its execution, it's practically impossible to look away. The question, for those who made the trip down to see the last days of the Aud, is whether the motivation was really deep reflection and nostalgia or a base desire to see a massive object meet its end.

One couple decided to have their wedding pictures taken in front of the building while its rows of terraced seats were still visible. With the happy couple on the left and the crumbling building on the right, a friend of mine said he hoped it wasn't a before-and-after picture. What might have motivated the couple to commemorate what was probably the biggest decision of their lives in a scene of such seeming ugliness says a lot about our culture, about the institutions it creates, and what happens when it destroys them.

If you came down to see the Aud's last gasps, tell us what made you come.

--Colin Dabkowski

Comments

[Chris Wendel]

My brother and I worked for four years on a book dedicated to the Buffalo Braves, Western New York's NBA basketball franchsise that played at the Aud.

On May 30th, "Buffalo, Home of the Braves" was competed, and we had a two hour book signing celebraton at New Era Hat Co on Delaware. After the signing we had a couple of beers with some Braves' fans, and on a whim ventured down to the Aud demolition site to pay our respects.

It's difficult to see your childhood playground being torned down before your eyes. After five minutes, we had both seen enough. We have the memories (and the book), and nobody can take those away.

[Ed]

Good job Buffalo another landmark gone... and what was the reasoning? Just like Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building gone. America's mentality anymore is to trash it and for new.

[Pamela]

The Aud was a childhood playground for me too and I generally went down there to reminisce about a happy time in my life. Tearing it down was the right thing to do because of it's sad state, but it's too bad our leaders couldn't have implemented a creative plan to reuse it back in 1996.

[BobbyCat]

Some years ago I wrote a Letter to the Editor suggesting that the Air Force fly over and drop a bunker buster bomb on our beloved Aud and hopefully some of the collateral boom-boom might level our cherished Skyway.

Destruction is a habit learned early in life. What kid hasn't carefully constructed little clay people - Little Bills- then smashed them with a hammer.

One can only hope that this appetite for destruction seeps into the metro region. I can think of many institutions that the hammer should come down on. Start with the legion of school districts and the army of little napoleons that run them; All the legislatures big and small. I'll stop here. You get the point.

If you shed tears for the Aud, are you interested in a bridge by any chance?

[Shelley Wright]

RIP Memorial Auditorium... You will be gone, but never forgotten and you will be sorely missed!!! :'-(

[Mike]

It's about time. Finally something is getting done around here. To bad nothing will be there to replace it. Bass Pro won't happen