With its master plan for the Richardson Olmsted Complex completed, the Richardson Center Corp. Thursday launched its formal environmental review of the project by soliciting the public’s take on what has been proposed for the site so far.

The scoping session, as it’s called, attracted about 50 people to Rockwell Hall auditorium on the Buffalo State College campus, where the broad scope of the project was reviewed before citizens were allowed to offer their comments.

Richard M. Tobe, Richardson Center Corp. board member, said the state does not require a scoping session to kick off a formal environmental review; however, board members agree that public input is always vital.

“It leads to a better report. We’re not required to do it, but it’s a very useful step in complicated environmental review,” said Tobe.

The public already has been involved in the initial planning. The last public meeting was held in July.

The master plan was developed by architectural design firm Chan Krieger Sieniewicz. It envisions the Richardson complex as a cornerstone for boosting Buffalo’s architectural and cultural tourism and generating significant economic spinoffs.

The plan calls for mixed public and private use of the eight Medina sandstone and three brick buildings on the site and reinstatement of a parklike character on the grounds. The first stage of redevelopment anticipates an architecture center, visitor center, boutique hotel and events/conference center in the iconic, patina-capped Gothic tower building and two adjacent buildings.

Timothy Tielman of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture and Culture, Thursday lauded the environmental review process to date as exemplary, but said there are avenues that deserve more exploration in the scoping document, including plans for a new roadway that would traverse the 90-acre site.

“I think the study has to look very carefully at the amount of traffic that would be generated by . . . people forgoing Forest Avenue, and simply from Elmwood Avenue to Grant Street going back and forth and using that diagonal. How much traffic is going to not be related to uses on the property, but cutting through?” said Tielman.

Adam Sokol, a member of the faculty at the University at Buffalo School of Architecture, expressed concern over whether any aspect of the complex’s use as a state psychiatric facility would remain.

“What I find really inspiring about this place is that you look at it and you see that at some point in the past the people of New York State saw fit not only to care for the mentally ill, but to do it in a place like that. It’s phenomenal, especially if you contrast that with the health care discussion going on in Washington,” said Sokol.

The project sponsors also announced Thursday that an additional $7.8 million in state aid will be used in stabilizing the buildings on the campus. By the end of 2010, $10 million in stabilization will be completed on the site.