Restoration of Hayes and Crosby Halls

Preserving the past, forming the future

UB South Campus exterior.

The restoration of Hayes and Crosby halls is a vast undertaking to preserve two of the most historic buildings on UB’s South Campus. The School of Architecture and Planning has called these buildings home for nearly 40 years.

The project combines an emphasis on historic preservation and sustainable building practices with a desire to creatively re-design these iconic structures to bring out their best use as part of a 21st century school of architecture and planning. Plans focus on preserving the exteriors of the buildings while making them more efficient, a strategy that aims for LEED Gold certification.

The work on both buildings also includes bringing each building up to code, installing state-of-the-art environmental systems, and advancing accessibility to interior spaces, primarily through the reclamation of each structure’s fourth floor.

Once complete, this multi-faceted project will have added creative, functional spaces to each building, while producing a thoughtful, physical expression of the school’s history and values, according to Dean Robert G. Shibley, FAIA, AICP, who has overseen the project as dean and as UB campus architect.

After Hayes and Crosby are restored, the nearby “temporary” annexes will be removed and steps taken to restore the pastoral character of E.B. Green’s 1930 campus plan. Trees and park-like lawns will replace some parking lots along Main Street, and water features and an amphitheater will be added, all open to public use. Restoring intimate quadrangles and reopening expansive lawns will help make the campus more walkable.

As work progresses, members of the faculty and staff, and the students, alumni and friends of the school are watching with a deepened realization of the scope of this project and what its completion will mean for the future.

“We have been talking about this for over 30 years—we can now say it’s finally happening. And it’s going to be great,” said Bruce R. Majkowski, MArch ’86, BPS ’84, associate dean for the School of Architecture and Planning, and liaison to the project.

For information or to make a gift to the project, please contact Robert Hill at the School of Architecture and Planning by emailing rrhill2@buffalo.edu or by calling 716-829-3973.