Community activist helps preserve the past

While a psychology major in the early '70s, Scott Field decided that his future lay in the past.

Now a trustee of the Preservation Coalition, a nonprofit group seeking to protect Western New York's historic architecture-and publisher of its newsletter, Preservation Report-the 44-year-old Field, '73, is helping to save the past for the future. It's not such an easy job.

"We've been involved with some controversial projects," Field notes, referring to the fact that the Coalition is often at odds with the city. "Downtown businesses don't want their buildings labeled as historic buildings," he says.

Field and the Preservation Coalition have helped save the Connecticut Street Armory, had the Joseph Ellicott Historic District created, and have recently made strides trying to preserve the old Cobblestone district downtown. Jointly with his job as housing director at the Polish Community Center of Buffalo, Field is trying to restore Buffalo's historic Central Terminal. "It's really going to be a monumental task," he says.

Field's passion for old buildings has its roots in UB. "My interest in architecture was stimulated by Professor Reiner Banham of the School of Architecture," he mentions. "Yet I never actually had him for a class. He was president of the local chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, and his tours and lectures on local architecture really drew me into the area of historic preservation."

After his undergraduate years, Field entered UB again, this time for a joint degree in the law and M.B.A. programs. After spending time with the New York State Attorney General's Office, Field joined the nonprofit Niagara Community Action Plan, as housing coordinator for a rural preservation program.

"One thing about UB," Field comments, "you had such a range of possibilities. The curriculum wasn't strictly circumscribed. There was a real openness about the school." As an undergraduate, Field spent a great deal of time working at WBFO in addition to classes; he also chaired the UUAB music committee, bringing to Buffalo such "classic" rockers as Todd Rundgren and Van Morrison.

"I spent more time at WBFO than I did in classes," he says. "You might say I minored in rock and roll."