Building the Wright Boathouse in Buffalo

The view of the Buffalo waterfront is one of the best in the region, as you see the Buffalo shoreline, the confluence of Lake Erie and the Niagara River, the Canadian shoreline and the Peace Bridge

In November 2000 Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse Corporation was founded by three members of West Side Rowing Club – Ted Marks, Jay Meyers and John Courtin. They had their first meeting of the corporation on the water, in the middle of the Black Rock Channel, in front of the boathouse site, in three sculling boathouse, rafted together.

It took three years to acquire the property the boathouse sits on. Five government entities had to come together to transfer the land from Buffalo State College and New York State to Erie County. The County now owns the land and leases it to the Boathouse Corporation.

After the land was acquired, the Corporation began a $5.5 million campaign to fund the boathouse project.

The Boathouse Corporation acquired the rights to the boathouse design from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and we have exclusive rights to the design. The design is officially retired and the boathouse cannot be built anywhere else. Construction began in September 2006 and was completed in September 2007.

Careful attention was paid to how the building is sited in order to get the best view of the crews coming down the race course. The crew races begin at the Ferry Street Bridge and end in front of the boathouse. This balcony is the only place you can view the races from start to finish.

Legacy of Charles and Marie Fontana
The boathouse is named for Charles and Marie Fontana. Charlie started rowing while at Lafayette high school in the mid – 1940’s. He was an excellent oarsman and tried out for the Olympics in 1948. After graduating from high school, he began coaching at West Side and coached for almost 40 years. Charlie influenced thousands of young men over the years and Marie was always very involved with West Side activities as well. Our lead private donor to the project is their son, Tom Fontana, a well-known television writer and producer.

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