Mural brings Buffalo into Crosby Hall

Inspired by the School of Architecture and Planning’s close engagement with the city of Buffalo, 10 students from UB’s Alpha Rho Chi architecture fraternity have mapped the city in a three-story mural that spans the eastern stairwell of Crosby Hall.

Ross Moretzsky, a senior in the architecture program and president of Alpha Rho Chi, explains the project.

“The mural is a map of the city of Buffalo split into three separate times in the city’s history over the three floors of Crosby,” Moretzsky says. “Our aim was to tie the school and city together, and better understand the development of Buffalo and how it has changed over time.”

The students created the mural based on a detailed study and sketches of the city’s street grid during the past 200 years.

The mural reflects the city’s unique radial street plan laid out by Joseph Ellicott in the early 1800s. Ellicott incorporated ideas from street designs in Washington, D.C., in which avenues run like spokes radiating from a hub.

Visitors to Crosby now pass by a depiction of Buffalo circa the early 1800s in the first-floor stairwell. The city grid grows denser and more expansive by the second floor (mid-20th century Buffalo) until it reaches the third floor, which represents present-day Buffalo. 

The students conceived, designed and implemented the interconnected mural independently, reflecting the school’s distinctive regional context and passion for place.