Urban farming comes to Buffalo Zoo
Barn-raising starts Phase II development costing $35.6 million
To chants of “Raise that barn,” a framework of weathered timbers suspended from a crane was guided into place Tuesday at the Buffalo Zoo, launching both construction of the Delta Sonic Heritage Farm exhibit and the $35.6 million second phase of zoo redevelopment.
The heavy beams will hold up one side of a historic barn that was dismantled in North Tonawanda in April and is being reassembled as the centerpiece of a new children’s zoo portraying rural life along the Erie Canal in the 19th century.
The homestead setting, in a space formerly occupied by the guanaco and mouflon habitats and a carousel, will feature farm animals, a wetlands area and a replica canal lock.
In line with the zoo’s new waterthemed master plan, the exhibit will be designed to help visitors understand the importance of water to wildlife and of farm animals to the region’s development, as well as the canal’s role in transporting crops and other goods during the 1800s.
It is expected to open sometime in April.
Funding for the $1.75 million project includes $1 million from Erie County; $400,000 from the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; $250,000 from the Benderson family, owners of the Delta Sonic car wash chain; and $100,000 from the NxGen program of East Hill Foundation. The Bendersons also gave $250,000 to support an educational program for the exhibit.
The 35-by-45-square-foot dairy barn from the former Harold Mittelstaadt farm on Shawnee Road was donated by the David Homes company, which bought the property for residential development.
The gesture beat dumping the old but reusable wood in a landfill, said owner David Stapleton, whose company late this week will start building a new environmentally friendly home for a deserving Buffalo family for an episode of ABC-TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
“It took about 10 seconds” to commit taxpayer dollars to Heritage Farm, said County Executive Chris Collins, who praised the nation’s third-oldest zoo for remaking itself into a modern tourist attraction.
“They have a plan — imagine that!” Collins said, holding up the new exhibit as a model of cooperation between the public and private sectors. “This is money well spent — money justified.”
He may be right, but completing Phase II of the $75 million zoo rebuilding program, now in its eighth year, may be a tall order given the current bleak investment climate.
The agenda is headed by a $15.7 million Arctic exhibit and a $10.2 million African savanna as well as a new entry plaza and outdoor homes for gorillas and birds of prey.
“It’s pretty ambitious,” Zoo Chairman Hal Payne conceded at a recent board meeting.
Zoo President Donna M. Fernandes seems more than ready to plow ahead.
“If everyone picks up one of the hammers we’ve provided,” she told onlookers at the barn-raising ceremony, “we can finish this project today.”
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