Issue Ten

    Robert Then’s studio on Greenfield St. in Buffalo, New York’s Central Park district, has become a repository for orphaned architectural fixtures and other objects emblematic of Buffalo’s lost and plundered design culture.  Rarely, does not a week go by when Then will return to his home/studio and find objects left on his doorstep, deposited in his mailbox, without instruction or claim of ownership.  Then no longer thinks of this ritual as odd.  It is an accepted part of his metier along with the countless hours he spends custom fabricating uniquely functional and artistic metal works for public spaces and private homes.
   Then began his career a “few hours short” of a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Buffalo and with no agenda other than economic necessity.  His talents for fabrication were realized after a stint in a machine shop in 1984 where Then sensed that metalworking was his calling.  In 1986, he moved to his present space on Greenfield St. and began the bruising path of an artisan whose re-numeration still remains directly equivalent to his productivity.
    Upon entering Robert Then’s studio, one has the overwhelming sense of a preserved archaeological site.  The walls are lined with tools and dyes that Then has created, collected or been given by other craftsmen, some of whom Then has never met but whose family deemed him a worthy successor–the ultimate compliment to his craftsmanship.  Then shrugs off the wonderment of the casual observer to his working environment.  Still, the humbling effect of these hand made implements is enough to kill any impulse of the do-it-yourselfer.
    Then is decidedly reserved when verbalizing his style or accomplishments.  His concept of beauty begins with function and any further discussion of the subject abruptly trails off under the general heading of “doing things the right way.”  His virtuosity for precision is displayed in the restored skylights at Buffalo’s City Hall and Albright Knox Art Gallery.
    Conventional notions of time do not exist for him while he is immersed in a deadline.  That is why at a very late hour I found Then hunched over a copper extrusion for which he soldered a drain fitting with agonizing precision from a bit he had just machined, all in the pursuit of fabricating a beautiful set of over-engineered gutters. 
    Yes, gutters. 
    Who needs copper gutters nowadays, say you?  Then seemed incredulous at the very question.  Why wouldn’t you want copper gutters, he responded, that will outlast the roof they are attached to.
    Why wouldn’t you want something that will outlast what it is attached to?

    –photos by dellas