People A-Z  /  Milton Milstein

Overview

Milton Milstein was born in Brooklyn in 1911, trained at the School of Architecture at Syracuse University, and was granted a license to practice in 1942. He was made a fellow of the American Institute of Architects for public service in 1968 and created some of the most instantly recognizable civic and religious buildings in his adopted city. Milstein moved to Buffalo in the 1940s and one of his earliest commissions was the Jewish Community Center on Delaware Avenue dedicated in 1949. The Center project was built at a total construction cost of $657,000 and designed with the ability to add extra wings while maintaining its core aesthetic. From the 1990s through 2019, several additions were made to the building in keeping with this prescient design.

Over the course of Milstein’s career, he designed several senior housing projects, municipal housing complexes and regional hospitals. Other civic commissions included Sweet Home High School and Daemen College’s Wick Campus Center. His most well know Jewish civic and religious structures included the Rosa Coplon Jewish Home and Infirmary at Symphony Circle completed in 1953 and Temple Sinai on Alberta Drive in Amherst in 1957. His mid-twentieth century architectural style exuded a simple yet sophisticated design aesthetic. He formed Milton Milstein Associates in his early career, and later expanded this firm with the new name of Milstein, Wittek, Davis & Hamilton in 1966. In addition to new builds, the firm worked on the rehabilitation of existing facilities, including the old Erie County Hall, Erie County Correctional Facility, buildings within the University at Buffalo, and Amherst Station, part of the Light Rail Rapid Transit as well as the Edward A. Rath County Office Building.

Milton Milstein was very active in professional organizations as well as civic lay leadership, most notably at Daemen College. He died in 1993 at the age of 82.