NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — There’s a push in Niagara Falls to turn the turtle-shaped building that was once the home of the former Native American Center for the Living Arts into a local landmark.
On Monday night, residents and members of a community group called Friends of the Turtle gathered to discuss a current proposal to “reawaken” the building.
The group includes Native representatives, museum professionals, historic preservation specialists, tourism promoters, and scholars and has worked to bring life back to the building that has been vacant for 28 years.
“Turtles aren't supposed to hibernate for 30 years,” said Michael Martin with Friends of the Turtle. “It’s an iconic building in the city that generations of both native and non-native visitors have known and loved.”
The turtle opened in 1981 and was designed by Northern Arapaho architect Dennis Sun Rhodes to represent a creation story in which the Earth was created on the back of a sea turtle.
Despite efforts to revive the building, others feel it should be used differently moving forward. Cory Flament, a business owner in Niagara Falls, told 2 On Your Side making the turtle a landmark would just be repeating old mistakes.
“You come to the United States of America, Niagara Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world, you expect more,” Flament said. “If you really care deeply about actually improving Niagara Falls and making it a more desirable location to visit and hang out, play, learn, live, you have to have more inviting areas.”
There’s also been pushback from Niagara Falls Redevelopment, the private company that owns the building. Landmark designation would significantly limit the use of the land and the building on it.
Niagara Falls Redevelopment cited that the building has been vacant longer than it served as a cultural center and past efforts to turn it into a museum with little financial backing as reasons not to proceed with the plan.
“If a building so wrong in so many ways is landmarked for such wrong reasons, it is the taxpayers of Niagara Falls who will ultimately suffer,” the company said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the Niagara Falls City Council will meet to discuss the fate of this building and vote on whether it should become a landmark. The city’s historic preservation commission already approved the proposal unanimously, but it also must be approved by the majority of the city council to be ratified.
That meeting will take place at 6 p.m.