Linder’s new mural takes flight at DL&W Terminal

Commuters passing through the newly renovated Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (DL&W) terminal will be greeted by a sprawling new mural created by UB art professor Joan Linder. “Birds of Buffalo,” spanning nearly 300 feet of the train platform, features 154 species of local birds, drawn from sightings at nearby Tifft Nature Preserve.

“For the mural, I made about 300 drawings in my studio, which were photographed and converted into digital files, printed and high-fired onto porcelain tile,” Linder says. “I chose tile as the main medium to cover platform walls because it resonates with me as the vernacular material of subway and train stations.”

Linder began researching the project two years ago and discovered that long before trains and concrete platforms, Buffalo’s shoreline teemed with wings — warblers, owls, geese and loons passing through marshlands and forest. With “Birds of Buffalo” she honors both the region’s rich ecosystem as well as Roger Tory Peterson, the Jamestown-born naturalist who published the first field guide to birds in 1934.

The DL&W terminal sits adjacent to the Outer Harbor and up the street from Tifft Nature Preserve. Linder says the land is home to a complex ecosystem of shoreline, marshlands, mudflats and forest — and is a critical travel corridor and breeding location for many migratory and local species of birds. She collected the information for her mural from Tifft’s annual “First of the Year” bird checklist, which is a poster created by volunteer Fred Robjent from hand-written sightings logged by visitors.

“’Birds of Buffalo’ is based on the 2024 list, depicting all 154 species and arranged in loose chronological order from January to December,” Linder explains. “Each species is represented by one or several unique drawings using ink, watercolor and marker, and were then translated into permanent materials. The physicality of hand-written communication, on paper, resonated with the material and process of making drawings.”

Linder says incorporating motion was a guiding principle in the design. “I arranged the birds in different directions to give a feeling of movement and activity. A train is all about motion, and I wanted the flock to feel like it was moving,” Linder says. “The arrangement is a fiction — these species don’t travel together in real life — but the idea of a diverse flock reminded me of people on the trains. They gather in a car, take off and then return.”

To bring the work to life, Linder partnered with writer and photographer Nancy J. Parisi, who scanned and photographed the drawings and documented the installation.

“The moment Joan told me about submitting her proposal, I knew she was going to get it,” Parisi said of the selection process. “It sounded so perfect for a train terminal/station with birds from the area, and Joan’s work documenting natural spaces and species is incredible.”

Parisi’s work was integral to many stages of the project: digitizing the artwork, working with a designer and fabricators, and collaborating with a team of professional tilers.

“It was a lot to plan, and Joan was the leader of the project,” Parisi said. “Seeing the first of the bird tiles laid into a field of plain white tiles was incredible. When you walk along the platform in the station, it’s like seeing a musical score with birds standing or soaring in a sky.”

In addition to the hand-drawn images translated into tiles by Tile Artisan Design, Linder worked with Miotto Mosaics to create 13 glass mosaics that serve as landmarks along the platform.

“I wanted people to be able to locate themselves by the artwork,” Linder said. “Maybe they’ll say, ‘Let’s meet by the mosaic turkey,’ or ‘Meet me by the little bird on the signage.’”

For Parisi, her role in documenting the process was also about legacy.

“Joan and I talked about the permanence and longevity of ‘Birds of Buffalo,’” she said. “Everyone touching this project understands that what has been created will be seen by people in the terminal for ages.”

More than a century after it was built, and nearly 50 years after it was last open to the public, the DL&W train terminal behind KeyBank Center will soon be back in business, as the first extension of the Metro Rail line in 43 years.

According to the project’s website, the rest of DL&W is being reimagined as a public market, gathering place and entertainment venue set on the second floor of the historic train terminal that’s located at the confluence of the Buffalo River, Erie Canal and Niagara River, immediately adjacent to Canalside and KeyBank Center. Construction for the 120,000-square-foot space is currently underway,

“I live within walking distance of DL&W station and am happy that the NFTA has prioritized making the terminal not only a full-service station where riders can come inside and wait and stay warm, but that it will be a marketplace and an event space,” Parisi says. “As a longtime photographer and journalist who’s chronicled and reported on the region, I’ve been interested in Buffalo’s past and present industrial heritage.”