Things to do in Buffalo

Landmark · Parkside, near Delaware Park

Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House complex, built 1903–05 — six connected buildings, a hundred-foot pergola and 394 art glass windows, restored over three decades from near-ruin.

Local tip: Wright himself regarded it as among his finest Prairie houses and Buffalo has more of his work than anywhere outside Chicago and Wisconsin. Book the longer architectural tour rather than the standard one, and pair it with the Graycliff estate on the lake shore south of the city if you have a day.

Culture · Elmwood district, opposite Delaware Park

One of the oldest public art institutions in the United States and an outstanding collection of modern and contemporary work, reopened in 2023 after a major expansion.

Local tip: The collection is genuinely world class for a city this size — Buffalo's industrial wealth bought Picasso and Pollock early. Go on a weekday and start upstairs. The new building's glass-roofed town square is free to walk into even without a ticket.

Nature · North Buffalo and across the city

Frederick Law Olmsted's Buffalo work was the first true park SYSTEM in America — parks linked by landscaped parkways rather than isolated green squares — with Delaware Park at its centre.

Local tip: Olmsted called Buffalo the best-planned city in the United States. Run the Ring Road round Hoyt Lake, then follow the Bidwell and Lincoln parkways out to see what a linked system actually means. In winter the golf course becomes a sledging hill by common consent.

Neighborhood · Downtown, at the western terminus of the Erie Canal

The rebuilt canal terminus where the Erie Canal met Lake Erie and made Buffalo — now boardwalks, replica canal slips, concerts in summer and a curling rink and ice bikes in winter.

Local tip: Buffalo spent a long time with its back to the water and this is the reversal. Summer concerts are free; winter is the better-kept secret, with skating on the frozen canal slips. Walk out along the Outer Harbor for the view back at the grain elevators and City Hall.

Neighborhood · Between downtown and Delaware Park

A mile of independent shops, cafés and restaurants along Elmwood Avenue with Victorian and early-1900s houses on the streets either side — consistently cited as one of the better urban neighbourhoods in America.

Local tip: This is where most newcomers who want to walk to things end up. The Bidwell Parkway farmers market on Saturday mornings is the neighbourhood's real centre. Rents are higher here than the rest of the city and it is the one part of Buffalo where a car is genuinely optional.

Culture · Old First Ward, on the Buffalo River

A cluster of enormous derelict concrete grain elevators — the building type Buffalo invented in 1842 — now hosting readings, concerts, climbing and tours among the silos.

Local tip: Le Corbusier called these elevators the first fruits of a new age and came to see them. Take the kayak tour up the Buffalo River for the view nobody gets from land, or go to one of the summer readings inside a silo, where the acoustics do something no concert hall does.