Wintergarden can’t be saved
Proper design of replacement passage is critical to downtown renewal
Updated: 08/14/08 7:04 AM
It’s a shame, in some ways, but the decision to demolish the Wintergarden in Niagara Falls is a necessary one. The building had become too expensive to operate and it hindered development of the city’s enfeebled tourist economy.
The eye-catching glass-and-steel edifice once housed an arboretum, but was more recently home to a children’s playground and arcade called Smokin’ Joes Family Fun Center. Now its owner, Joseph Anderson, has agreed to sell it for $1.6 million to the state’s USA Niagara Development Corp., which will tear it down.
Instead of the Wintergarden — which, some critics complained, separated the city from the falls — the state agency plans to build a cobblestone street and public walkway that would link the world’s most famous waterfalls to the Seneca Niagara Casino. In doing so, the state could help to draw people out of the casino toward the falls and other city attractions, or invite them to leave the falls and explore the city.
In both cases, the plan could spur other developments, if entrepreneurs sense that more visitors will move between the river and the casino area. And the best way to do that is to make sure the connecting street and walkway are as attractive and welcoming as possible. Design work will be critical, and that is USA Niagara Development’s responsibility.
The Wintergarden building is eye-catching, but its useful life has expired. The city, unable to afford the maintenance and utility costs of the building, sold it to Anderson in 2003. Now Anderson has also thrown in the towel, unable to control the utility costs.
With tourists continuing to complain about little to do on the New York side of the falls, it’s time to make more significant changes. Not everyone wants to gamble.
With an attraction like Niagara Falls in its midst, there is no good reason the city should be the economic disaster area it has become. There are only bad ones: greed, political corruption, poor decisions. Things may be starting to change, though; this looks like a good decision, however painful it may be to admirers of the Wintergarden.
The city doesn’t have to tear down everything, as the restorations of the United Office Building and the Hotel Niagara show. Sometimes, though, that’s the right choice. So it is here.
