Hotel Lafayette Gets Ready to Shine

The new crown jewel of downtown is almost ready for her close-up as workers begin to finish up at the Hotel Lafayette. Over two hundred people are working through the building almost every day of the week to get the historic landmark ready its official debut shortly.

The chandeliers have been refurbished and returned to the Crystal Dining Room, the ornate plaster ceiling of the grand ballroom has been repaired, and the scagliola has been repaired and replicated along Peacock Alley. The transformation is nothing short of amazing especially considering the timeline for the restoration work.

Although there is still work that needs to be completed throughout the building, much of first floor public spaces and ballrooms as well as the upper floor apartments have been completed. It’s mostly just a matter of tidying things up and adding the finishing touches to those spaces. Much of the space in the basement for storage, services, and the rooms for Butterwood Desserts is in various stages of drywall going up and being finished. The Butterwood space is going to be pretty incredible with the high, ornate ceilings and will surely be one of the more unique spaces downtown.

The proposed exterior patios will not be happening in the foreseeable future because an agreement could not be reached with the adjacent property owner. However, the new in-fill structure has been completely framed up and getting ready for the interior as work progresses. It will serve as rental space for the Lafayette Tap Room below which will be operated by the Pearl Street Bar and Grill.

As a result of the exterior patio idea being axed, an interior patio has been added. The floor of a light alley in the center of the building (shown below) will serve as a party space for those wishing to rent it out via the Lafayette Tap Room. Those parties who wish to be on the patio late into the night have to rent the surrounding four rooms at that level to ensure that hotel guests will not be disturbed during their stay.

The building will even be hosting some great events in the coming weeks including the Beaux-Arts Ball by the School of Architecture and Planning from UB on April 28^th and the 150^th anniversary celebration of the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society on May 10^th.

I'll just let the pictures do the talking from here, to see them on my Flickr pool, Views of Buffalo, click here or to watch them as a slideshow click here.

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