August 11, 1932 – January 12, 2023
Sheldon M. Berlow, a outstanding Buffalo realtor who used his love of excessive tradition and huge information of actual property to advertise downtown improvement and avant-garde artwork, died unexpectedly Jan. 12 at his dwelling in Elmwood Village. He was 90 years outdated.
Mr. Berlow made headlines in 1976 when he assembled an funding group to purchase the town’s second-tallest constructing, the 29-story Rand Constructing, and transfer his workplaces there. The next 12 months, he spearheaded a fundraiser to revive the great thing about the dilapidated Lafayette Sq. in entrance of the Rand Constructing.
He gained the admiration of a era of experimental artists by arranging with Media Research-Buffalo, which originated on the College of Buffalo, to purchase the previous Mars Resort on Delaware Avenue for $1 and supply them with a base to work from.
“He understood what artwork actually was,” mentioned Anthony Bannon, former director of the Burchfield Penney Artwork Heart who labored with him on a number of tasks. “He was deeply, intentionally going to occasions that might confuse him. It might require considerate interpretation and it did not matter what medium it was in.”
Mr. Berlow has been a continuing presence at theater shows, concert events and artwork openings for greater than half a century. He by no means missed a efficiency on the North American Competition of New Music, which he achieved success.
Among the many guests to his dwelling, his son Eric recalled, was the composer John Cage.
Born in Steubenville, Ohio, an solely little one, Sheldon Mayer Berlow got here from Buffalo as a baby when his father Nathan took a place at one of many downtown malls. After his mom’s demise when he was 11 years outdated, he moved in along with his aunt.
In 1950, the 12 months his father died, he graduated from Bennett Excessive Faculty and acquired a gold pin for 4 years of service as an workplace supervisor.
He acquired a scholarship to Trinity Faculty in Hartford, Connecticut, the place he was Corresponding Secretary of Theta Xi Fraternity and a member of the Air Pressure ROTC.
After receiving his bachelor’s diploma in 1954, he was commissioned as an officer within the Air Pressure, and after obligation at Tyndall Air Pressure Base, Florida, he was assigned to the Far East and was commissioned a primary lieutenant.
He handed the state actual property licensing examination in 1959 and along with his accomplice Arthur H. Judelsohn based Berlow Actual Property in 1971, specializing in industrial land and constructing gross sales, leasing and financing, with workplaces within the former Genesee Constructing.
The Rand Constructing was about 60% occupied when Berlow and Judelsohn purchased it and commenced working it. It was 97% full when it was bought 10 years later.
Throughout that point, Mr. Berlow turned chairman of the Downtown Core Coalition, a gaggle that promoted revitalization and included constructing house owners, retailers and the Larger Buffalo Growth Basis.
He organized quite a few necessary actual property transactions, together with the acquisition of the Knox Mansion on Delaware Avenue by the Laptop Job Group.
The corporate additionally brokered retail offers throughout the state, working with nationwide chains resembling House Depot, Goal and Workplace Max. When the Japanese Hills Procuring Heart in Clarence was being constructed within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, Mr. Berlow was the leasing agent.
He bought his stake within the firm to Judelson within the late Nineties, however remained concerned as an affiliate dealer after its sale to Pyramid Brokerage. In 2011, he organized for the sale of the unique Premier Wines retailer on Delaware Avenue within the City of Tonawanda.
He started to take management in cultural establishments within the Nineteen Sixties. He was the president of the Board of Conductors of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, which assisted the then music director Lukas Foss and gave nice help to the Save the Philharmonic marketing campaign in 1969.
He chaired the board of advisors for the Experimental American Modern Theater within the outdated Pierce Arrow constructing and was a founding member of Hallwalls.
“He supported the unique Hallwalls,” Bannon mentioned. “He purchased their items and invited them to his home.”
He was a member of the primary advisory board for the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin Martin Home and was chairman of the Artwork Advisory Board of what was then Buffalo State Faculty.
In 1987, he organized and raised funds for the Competition of 5 to have a good time the reopening of the school’s Rockwell Corridor after its renovation.
The competition included a efficiency of “The Center Ages” by Buffalo-born playwright AR Gurney, the return of Lukas Foss to conduct the Buffalo Philharmonic in premieres by Buffalo composers Anton Wolff and Robert Cantrick, and the efficiency artwork piece “Killing Angels,” by Hallwalls co-founder Robert Lengthy.
Initially a board member of the non-profit Tralfamadore Jazz Institute, he served as interim president and helped prepare funding to reopen the downtown showcase nightclub after it closed in 1987.
He was a part of the committee in 2000 that chosen the artists for Herd About Buffalo, a public artwork venture that created a large number of bison sculptures and raised funds for the Roswell Park Complete Most cancers Heart.
“It is exhausting to think about Buffalo’s world-renowned and influential up to date artwork, experimental movie, video artwork, and maybe particularly new music scene for the reason that late Nineteen Sixties with out the presence, passionate involvement, and patronage in each sense of the time period, of Sheldon Berlow,” developer and safety guard Frits Abell wrote after listening to of his demise.
He was additionally previous president of the Nichols Faculty Mother or father Council, previous trustee of Calasanctius Faculty and Park Faculty of Buffalo, previous director of the College at Buffalo Basis, and previous trustee of the Buffalo State Faculty Basis.
He was a previous vp of the Buffalo World Hospitality Affiliation and chairman of the Erie Bi-Centennial Hospitality Fee.
He was a member of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, a board member of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries, a board member of the Buffalo Society of Pure Sciences, and a trustee of the John McHale and Magda McHale Archives Basis.
He was additionally previous president of the Pals of the Faculty of Structure and Environmental Design at UB, previous secretary of the Metropolis of Buffalo Evaluation Committee, and previous adjunct professor within the UB Honors Faculty.
On the invitation of an area trainer who gave him French classes, he went to Paris in 1959 and met her cousin, Nadine Layani, an Algerian-born actress within the Comedie Francaise.
They married in 1960, shortly after she got here to Buffalo to go to her cousin. Professor of French at Holy Angels Academy and head of the Par Avion Pantry French cooking college, she died in 1978.
He remarried Mary Hanrahan Clark in 1987.
Along with his spouse, survivors embody two sons, Eric L. Berlow and Carrington Clark; two daughters, Alexa L. Berlow and Susan LaVersa; and 5 grandchildren.
A graveside service was held Jan. 16 in Forest Garden.
