Buffalo Electric Glass joins the DL&W project.
A new cultural destination for Western New York.
Buffalo Electric Glass (BEG), a newly formed nonprofit glassmaking studio, announced its intention to become a significant cultural tenant of Savarino’s second-floor redevelopment in the DL&W Terminal last week. The organization plans to build out the region’s first publicly accessible hot-glass workshop and the world’s first all-electric glass hot shop. The facility will introduce visitors and learners of all ages to hands-on glassmaking, narrated demonstrations, educational experiences, and artist-led programs.
The addition of BEG marks a significant step forward for Savarino’s plan for the DL&W terminal’s upper-level development. It also strengthens the project’s educational and cultural identity.
A story more than a decade in the making.
BEG’s path to the DL&W Terminal began before the nonprofit existed. For well over a decade, Buffalo Rising’s Newell Nussbaumer has followed the waterfront and the former train shed’s redevelopment potential with close interest. Last spring, he came across the DL&W project website and reached out with a suggestion that would ultimately reshape the building’s future.
What followed is best described in Newell’s own account:
“[While] playing pool, I met a guy by the name of Robert Cassetti who told me that he [was retired from] the Corning Museum of Glass. I told Cassetti that it was a lifelong dream to establish a significant glass facility in Buffalo, and he said that it would never happen. It would be too expensive. Not enough resources. There’s already a glass museum in New York State, etc.
At the end of the evening, I grabbed his contact, and the next day, I reached out to Christa Glennie at the DL&W and told her that I met Cassetti, and that I thought there was a huge opportunity to establish a glass-making facility at the DL&W.
It would be a unique, all-ages attraction that would draw countless people to the waterfront. While she didn’t think that the idea was in line with the direction that they were heading, she agreed to meet up with Cassetti. The rest, as they say, is history… or the future of the DL&W project in this case. This cultural attraction is now being considered the anchor of the Terminal, which is anticipated to attract hundreds of thousands of people to the waterfront each year. Its anchor status will also prop up many of the other businesses located within the facility, which will benefit greatly from the foot traffic that it will generate."
That early conversation sparked a series of steps that carried the idea forward. Glennie met with Cassetti that summer. Soon after, she and CEO Samuel J. Savarino traveled to Corning to tour the Corning Museum of Glass with Robert Cassetti and his longtime colleague and inventor, Steve Gibbs.
As preliminary planning advanced, the NFTA granted the team access to tour the second floor of the DL&W. This allowed Cassetti and Gibbs to grasp its scale and structure, and to begin shaping its feasibility.
CJS Architects, longtime partners of Savarino Companies with prior hot-shop design experience, were engaged to design the future BEG facility within the historic building. You can find the most basic layout of the BEG space in the project’s newly updated plans, prepared by its architect, Eimer Design.
Powered by expertise.
BEG’s leadership team brings national and international experience in contemporary glassmaking, museum education, and cultural innovation.
Robert Cassetti, president of BEG’s founding board, served more than 30 years at The Corning Museum of Glass, where he led creative strategy, visitor engagement, and exhibition design. Cassetti and Steve Gibbs, who will serve as senior advisor, created the museum’s industry-defining Hot Glass Show and mobile glassmaking programs. Gibbs is also the co-inventor of the electric furnace technologies that will power BEG’s all-electric hot shop—poised to be the most sustainable of its kind.
These innovations connect directly to Buffalo’s legacy as “The Electric City” and “The City of Light,” shaped by hydropower and industrial ingenuity.
A board built on experience and public benefit.
In parallel with the design and feasibility work, a founding board of local professionals formed to guide Buffalo Electric Glass through its early nonprofit development and 501(c)(3) application. Each brings expertise in fundraising, cultural programming, design, civic engagement, and regional development. Officers include:
Robert Cassetti, President, is the BEG Senior Advisor and retired Senior Director of Creative Strategy and Visitor Engagement at the Corning Museum of Glass. In addition to his leadership in audience engagement, Cassetti has served on arts and museum boards, contributing expertise in creative strategy, communications, and cross-disciplinary cultural programming.
Emily Tucker, Vice President, is Assistant Director of Leadership Annual Giving, University at Buffalo, and Co-Founder and Co-Director, Art Resource. Tucker is a fundraising and community engagement professional and art curator with extensive board experience.
Renata Toney, Secretary, is Vice President of Destination Experience at Visit Buffalo. A longstanding communications specialist, Toney’s career includes advancing arts, culture, and destination storytelling across Western New York.
Keri Kerper, Treasurer, is Director of Community Development, City of Olean. As an economic development leader, Kerper has extensive experience supporting municipal revitalization, small business growth, and community-focused programming.
BEG belongs at the DL&W.
BEG aligns directly with the DL&W project’s purpose: to return a historic landmark to public use as a year-round cultural, civic, and economic asset.
The hot-glass studio will:
Attract residents and visitors through daily activities
Anchor the building’s southwest corner with a major, high-impact cultural use
Complement the terminal’s public market, food vendors, event spaces, and terminal-wide programming plans
Support the termina’s vision to extend waterfront programming into all four seasons
Strengthen Buffalo’s tourism and cultural identity with an experience not found elsewhere in the region
An investment in Buffalo’s creative identity.
When it opens in early 2028 with the complete second-floor redevelopment, Buffalo Electric Glass will offer a studio environment where visitors participate directly in the making process. This “visitor-as-creator” model is central to BEG’s mission, encouraging people to shape glass, witness live demonstrations, hear about Buffalo’s electric legacy, and learn from master glassblowers.
For families, school groups, tourists, artists, and community members, BEG will be a new reason to return to the waterfront and a catalyst for activity throughout the building.
For the DL&W project, BEG provides not only a cultural anchor but also a new point of connection between Buffalo’s industrial past and its creative future.
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