The most evocative and inspiring building in the city of Niagara Falls sits near the brink of the American Falls. Its concept transcends its architecture – it speaks deeply about origins, beliefs and values. It makes you question assumptions. It makes you think about the deep past, where we have come from, and where we are now.
That building is the iconic Turtle, which sits at 25 Rainbow Blvd. Its once vibrant colors are covered with bland paint. It’s neglected by its corporate owners, empty and bereft of the living arts it once housed.
The Turtle was once the site of the former Native American Center for the Living Arts, an internationally recognized site for Native culture. Designed by the distinguished late Northern Arapaho architect Dennis Sun Rhodes, the center opened in 1981. It held contemporary Indigenous art exhibitions, theater performances, and programs in traditional arts and contemporary music, built to celebrate the Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.
The Turtle is a building that was ahead of its time. It inspired later architects with its zoomorphic design. Built in the shape of a turtle, the structure represents the Haudenosaunee creation story, in which the Earth is created on the back of a sea turtle. The building’s placement, with its head facing the American Falls, is significant, since Niagara Falls is a sacred site for the Haudenosaunee people. The three-story building has 67,000 sq. ft. with eagle skylights.
The building was funded with $6 million from the federal Economic Development Administration, with additional support from the National Endowment of the Humanities and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
The arts center closed in 1995 due to financial difficulties. The building was purchased from the City of Niagara Falls in 1997 by Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR), a private firm owned by New York City real estate developers. It has been vacant since then. NFR has proposed to demolish the Turtle building for new development.
This year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Turtle to its 2025 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The annual list “raises awareness about the threats facing some of the nation’s greatest treasures,” according to the National Trust’s website https://savingplaces.org.