By DONN ESMONDE
Hope came to town Thursday. It came on the silvery face of the rarest of local birds - a new building for a growing corporation in an industry with more of a future than a past.You knew it was a big deal because George Pataki and Sheldon Silver showed up, and acted like they liked each other. But what mattered wasn't the politicians, but the place.
The new Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute sits between Main Street and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Its curved silver shell and slotted windows loom above the old Ulrich's Tavern like a cyborg standing over an old shoe. More than what it is, is what it means: a 21st century industry for a town built on - and fallen with - 20th century industrial might.
Hope wears the shoes of a newer science called bioinformatics. The cures for the biggest diseases can be found in the smallest particles. I don't understand the particulars, but I see the possibilities. It does not have the look of false promise. It is not another blind alley for a city groping for a post-industrial path.
This building - the start of a Life Sciences complex - matters because we already have the parts in place to make the science work. This is not a fever dream about Buffalo becoming Hollywood East. It is not a fantasy about building another downtown on the waterfront, as the downtown we have limps along. This is real.
This is real because we already have research scientists at Roswell Park. This is real because of the supercomputer and molecular research and Hauptman-Woodward scientists already at the University at Buffalo. This is real because Nobel Prize winner Herb Hauptman, the mega-brain with the Albert Einstein hair, is still motoring along in his 80s.
"The Life Sciences will see major advances in the 21st century," said Hauptman. "And that means the potential for bringing jobs here."
Good science already was being done in Hauptman's cramped old building, which looked more like a roadside motel than a research center. The shiny new place makes it easier to recruit talent. Two new scientists have already come, two more are in the pipeline.
The more scientists who come, the more who will come. It's like colleges battling for star athletes: Talent comes to places with new arenas and good teams.
"Without the new building," said Chris Greene, chairman of Hauptman-Woodward's board, "there are no new scientists."
This is real because local foundations pumped $5 million into the $24 million pot - drawn by the buzz of a research convergence of UB, Roswell and Hauptman-Woodward.
"The collaboration," said Greene, "makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts."
By next year's end there will be two more buildings, all with structures and scientists connected by a bridge across Ellicott Street. Think of it as a brain exchange to stop our brain drain.
Any science not exchanged by a bridge crossing can be shared after hours at Ulrich's. The beers may kill a few brain cells, but these folks have plenty to spare.
This means more than just a deeper foothold in a new industry. It means more bodies to fill downtown housing. It means talent coming into Buffalo, instead of going out. It means offshoot businesses sprouting like new growth beneath tall trees.
It will not happen tomorrow. There is no sure thing, especially in a science seen on Wall Street as a long shot play for speculators. Especially when two dozen cities - most with more corporate muscle than us - are placing bioinformatics bets.
But the building is a big, silvery symbol of hope. This time, the promise is real.
e-mail:
desmonde@buffnews.com