Architecture of Buffalo, New York

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Art Deco detail of Buffalo City Hall
Niagara Square during the Taste of Buffalo in 2008

The Architecture of Buffalo, New York, particularly the buildings constructed between the American Civil War and the Great Depression, is said to have created a new, distinctly American form of architecture and to have influenced design throughout the world.[1]

History

Buffalo's original plan from the early 19th century was loosely based on Pierre Charles L'Enfant's 1791 plan for Washington, an Americanized version of Paris's system of radiating boulevards. Buffalo's radial street grid was designed by Joseph Ellicott and complemented by a system of parks and parkways designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Buffalo was the first city for which Olmsted designed an interconnected park and parkway system rather than stand-alone parks.

One Seneca Tower
, formerly the HSBC Building.

During the

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Frederick Law Olmsted declared Buffalo to be "the best planned city, as to its streets, public places, and grounds, in the United States, if not in the world."[2]

According to The New York Times architecture writer Nicolai Ourousoff:

Buffalo was founded on a rich tradition of architectural experimentation. The architects who worked here were among the first to break with European traditions to create an aesthetic of their own, rooted in American ideals about individualism, commerce and social mobility.[1]

The city contains buildings designed by American architecture masters like Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and Henry Hobson Richardson, making Buffalo one of the most architecturally significant cities in America. It also contains many buildings designed by modern architects including Minoru Yamasaki, Toshiko Mori, Marcel Breuer[3] and Harrison & Abramovitz.

Tallest buildings

Main article: List of tallest buildings in Buffalo, New York
Rank Building Height
feet/meters 		Floors Year
01.01
One Seneca Center
 01.0529 / 161 40 1972
02.02 Buffalo City Hall 02.0398 / 121 32 1931
03.03 Rand Building 03.0391 / 119 29 1929
04.04 Main Place Tower 04.0350 / 107 26 1969
05.05 Liberty Building 05.0345 / 105 23 1945
06.06 One M&T Plaza 06.0317 / 97 21 1966
07.07 Electric Tower 07.0294 / 90 14 1912
07.08 St. Paul's Cathedral 07.0275 / 84 N/A 1851
09.09 50 Fountain Plaza 09.0275 / 84 17 1990
10.010 Buffalo Central Terminal 10.0271 / 83 20 1929

Notable architects

Numerous architects and landscape architects have constructed landmark buildings and park systems of varying styles in Buffalo. They include:

Frank Lloyd Wright, 1926

Landmarks, monuments and public places

Panorama view of Buffalo in 1911, with the Prudential (Guaranty) Building left of middle

Albright–Knox Art Gallery

Main article:
Albright–Knox Art Gallery

The

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architect Gordon Bunshaft, who is noted for the Lever House in New York City. The Albright–Knox Art Gallery is listed in the National Register of Historic Places
.

Buffalo Central Terminal

Main article: Buffalo Central Terminal

The

Fellheimer & Wagner and built in 1929 for the New York Central Railroad. The terminal "was built to handle over 200 trains and 10,000 passengers daily, as well as 1,500 New York Central employees. It included shops, a restaurant, soda fountain, parking garage and all other services required for daily passenger operations."[4] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
on September 7, 1984.

Buffalo City Court Building

Main article: Buffalo City Court Building

The

Brutalist architecture; its façade is dominated by large Precast concrete panels with narrow windows. The design was conceived with limited windows in order to keep the courtrooms and judges' chambers free from outside distraction.[5]

Buffalo City Hall

Main article: Buffalo City Hall

Iroquois Indians, the steel industry, law and education, electrical energy, and the waterfront community. In the lobby, there are four statues, "each which represent the characteristic of good citizenship, Virtue, Diligence, Service, and Fidelity."[6] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
on January 15, 1999.

Buffalo History Museum

Main article: Buffalo History Museum
New York State pavilion for the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 and is the sole surviving permanent structure from the exposition. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1980, and designated a National Historic Landmark
on February 27, 1987.

Buffalo Main Light

Main article: Buffalo Main Light

The Buffalo Main Light, also known as The Buffalo Lighthouse, is Buffalo's oldest building. It was built in 1833 and deactivated in 1914. It appears on the city seal at the mouth of the Buffalo River. It is also one of the oldest lighthouses on the Great Lakes. The walls of the tapered, unpainted octagonal limestone tower are four feet thick at the base and rise to 44 feet in height. The foundation material was stone molehead and the lighthouse was constructed out of limestone and cast iron. The shape of the tower was octagonal and was 60 feet (18 m) high. The lens installed in 1857 was a third order Fresnel lens.[7] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Delaware Park System

Main article: Delaware Park–Front Park System
historic district located in the northern and western sections of Buffalo. The park system was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and developed between 1868 and 1876. The Park System comprises many parks, Delaware Park being the largest (encompassing 376 acres). There are also Gates Circle, Chapin Parkway, Soldier's Place, Lincoln Parkway, Bidwell Parkway, and Front Park, among others. The park system was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1982.

Larkin Administration Building

Main article: Larkin Administration Building
Larkin Administration Building, 1906

The Larkin Administration Building was Frank Lloyd Wright's first commission in Buffalo. Larkin executive Darwin D. Martin hired Wright to design a building that would house the large number of clerks needed to operate the mail-order business for the Larkin Soap Company. Because the building would be located in an industrial part of town, it was necessary to make the building as attractive as possible to women, who made up the bulk of the white collar work force.[8]

The Larkin building was Wright's first commercial commission

blue-collar and white-collar
workers.

The Larkin Company went out of business in 1937, and the building was sold. Eventually, the City of Buffalo took it over for back taxes planning to demolish it for a trucking plaza. Despite community outcry, the building was torn down in 1950.

Old Post Office

Main article: Old Post Office (Buffalo, New York)
Erie Community College. Its tower is 74.4 meters tall.[11][12]

Prudential (Guaranty) Building

Main article: Prudential (Guaranty) Building

The

terra cotta blocks. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 1973, and designated a National Historic Landmark
on May 15, 1975.

Richardson Olmsted Complex

Main article: Richardson Olmsted Complex
Richardson Olmsted Complex, 2009

The Richardson Olmsted Complex is a grouping of Medina red sandstone and brick hospital buildings designed in 1870 in the Kirkbride Plan by architect Henry Hobson Richardson with grounds by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The complex was the largest commission of Richardson's career and marks the beginning of his characteristic "Romanesque Revival" style known as "Richardsonian Romanesque." It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 12, 1973, and designated a National Historic Landmark on June 24, 1986.

Sculptures and monuments

Michelangelo's David, 2009

There are several sculptures and monuments located throughout the city, including:

Residential

Birge-Horton House

Birge-Horton House, 2009
Main article: Birge-Horton House

The

Allentown Historic District.[25]
The Birge-Horton House was the last of the thirteen luxury row houses built from 1893–1895. All were four-story houses, and each house is the work of varying architects and of different designs; however, they give an overall appearance of unified composition because of similarities in height, width, and construction materials.

Charles W. Goodyear House

Main article: Charles W. Goodyear House

The Charles W. Goodyear House was designed by Buffalo architect Edward Green, of the Buffalo architecture firm Green & Wicks, and was completed in 1903 at a cost of $500,000 (equivalent to $16,956,000 in 2023). The home was built for Charles and Ella Goodyear. The house is located in the Delaware Avenue Historic District, a federally designated historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974. The exterior of the 2+1⁄2-story house is brick trimmed with stone. The mansard roof includes a row of dormers with pedimented tops with a festooned motif that runs along the roofline above a dentilled cornice. The principal entrance is on the north (right) side of the house denoted by a large arched doorway, bordered on each side by stone urns. The east façade facing Delaware Avenue has a one-story porch with columns, that was later bricked in.[26]

Darwin D. Martin House

Darwin D. Martin House, 2012
Main article: Darwin D. Martin House

The

Larkin Soap Company. Martin chose Wright to design his own house because he was so impressed with Wright and his design for the Larkin Administration Building.[27] The Martin House is considered to be one of the most important projects from Wright's Prairie School era. Compared to other Prairie Houses, the Martin House is unusually large and has an open plan containing 15 distinctive patterns of nearly 400 art glass windows, designed by Wright, some of which contain over 750 individual pieces of iridescent glass, that act as light screens to connect exterior views to the spaces within. More patterns of art glass were designed for the house than for any other of Wright's Prairie Houses. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 24, 1986, and designated a National Historic Landmark
, also on February 24, 1986.

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Main article: Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, also known as the Ansley Wilcox House, at 641 Delaware Avenue was built in 1840 by George Cary (U.S. Army) originally intended as the Barrack's officer's quarters. After the post was disbanded in 1845, the home reverted to a private residence. Subsequent owners continued to modify the structure adding and demolishing out structures and additions. In the late 19th century, Dexter Rumsey gave the property to his son-in-law Ansley Wilcox and his wife Mary Grace Rumsey. The newest inhabitants made extensive renovations to the structure.

In 1901, while attending the

National Historic Site was authorized on November 2, 1966. As a historic area administered by the National Park Service, it was automatically listed on the National Register of Historic Places
the same day.

William Dorsheimer House

Main article: William Dorsheimer House

The William Dorsheimer House was designed and built in 1868 by Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886) for William Dorsheimer (1832–1888), a prominent local lawyer and Lieutenant Governor of New York. It is located on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo and is a 2+1⁄2-story brick dwelling. It represents the profound influence of French ideas on the arts in the post Civil War period.[28] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

William R. Heath House

Main article: William R. Heath House

The

traffic circle. This presented Wright with the problem of situating a substantial Prairie house, with its characteristically open structure, in a confined space with twice the street exposure. The house was placed with its long axis right up against the Bird Ave. sidewalk with sections of the traffic circle acting as the grounds that a house of this standing would normally possess.[31]

Gallery

Timeline of notable buildings

Before 1900:

1900–1920:

1920–1939:

1940 to the present:

Styles and schools

Japanese Garden, Delaware Park

Buffalo architects used many design styles and belonged to a variety of architectural schools. Below is a sample of some of the styles and schools and schools found in Buffalo architecture:

See also

References

  1. ^ a b nytimes.com Nicolai Ourousoff, "Saving Buffalo's Untold Beauty", The New York Times, November 14, 2006.
  2. ISBN 978-1-62534-006-1
    .
  3. ^ "UB Buildings: Bell Hall". www.buffalo.edu. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  4. ^ "History of the Buffalo Central Terminal". buffalocentralterminal.org. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  5. ^ LaChiusa, Chuck. "City Court Building".
  6. ^ Schihl, James; Healy, James. "City Hall History". City of Buffalo. Tony DiNatale. Archived from the original on August 12, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  7. ^ "Buildings & Monuments". visitbuffaloniagara.com. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  8. ^ PBS website
  9. ^ Terra Stories
  10. ^ T. Robins Brown (n.d.). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: U.S. Post Office". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved July 25, 2009. See also: "Accompanying three photos".
  11. ^ "Old Post Office". SkyscraperPage.com. Retrieved December 25, 2007.
  12. ^ "Old Post Office". Emporis.com. Archived from the original on March 21, 2007. Retrieved December 25, 2007.
  13. ^ "DAVID". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  14. ^ "SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MONUMENT". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  15. ^ "WILLIAM MCKINLEY MONUMENT". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  16. ^ "WOLFGANG A. MOZART". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  17. ^ "ALEXANDER PETOFI". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  18. ^ "JOHN F. KENNEDY". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  19. ^ "GIUSEPPE VERDI (ORIGINAL)". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  20. ^ "FREDERIC CHOPIN". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  21. ^ "FRANK X. SCHWAB". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  22. ^ "Indian Hunter". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  23. ^ "General Daniel Davidson Bidwell". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  24. ^ "Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry". ci.buffalo.ny.us. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  25. ^ Claire L. Ross (January 26, 2004). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Birge--Horton House". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved June 14, 2009. See also: "Accompanying four photos".
  26. ^ "Delaware Avenue Historic District". livingplaces.com. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  27. ^ Darwin D. Martin House website
  28. ^ Francis Kowsky (April 10, 1980). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: William Dorsheimer House". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved June 14, 2009. See also: "Accompanying seven photos".
  29. ^ a b Reyner Banham & Francis R. Kowsky, Buffalo Architecture, pp. 163–164, Buffalo Architectural Guidebook Corporation; 1981.
  30. ^ Edgar Tafel, Years with Frank Lloyd Wright: Apprentice to Genius, p. 84, Courier Dover Publications; 1985.
  31. ^ Brendan Gill, Many Masks, pp. 145–146, Da Capo Press; 1998.

External links

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