Electric Tower - Table of
Contents
Exterior - Electric Tower
535 Washington
St., Buffalo NY
|
SITE |
The building occupies the entire block. Here Washington Street is bordered by Genesee St. on the north, E. Huron St. on the south, and Ellicott St. on the east. |
|
ERECTED |
1912 Additions: 1924, 1927 |
|
ARCHITECTS |
Esenwein
& Johnson Additions: E.B. Green & Sons |
|
STYLE |
Beaux-Arts Classical Revival |
|
BUILDING MATERIALS |
Steel
frame White, glazed Terra cotta exterior |
2004-2016 Photos
On this page, below:
Facade,
west elevation  Facade, west elevation. Triangular site on Washington, Genesee and Huron streets  Facade.  Facade. Finial ... White, glazed terra cotta ... Cornice ... Dentil molding ... Roman Corinthian columns  Facade.  Facade. White, glazed terra cotta parapet, overlooking Genesee Building/Hyatt Hotel, City Hall, and the Niagara River  Facade. Roman lattice ... Roman Corinthian columns  Facade. Beaux Arts style white, glazed terra cotta ... Vertical margents  Facade ... Margents |
North
elevation View south  North elevation. Genesee St. looking west. Genesee Building/Hyatt Hotel and Buffalo Savings Bank/M&T Bank at the right.  North elevation.  Roman lattice decorate the spandrel panels  |
|
The 294-foot-high General Electric Building was completed in 1912 to administer the sales and distribution of electricity from Niagara Falls. The Electric
Building, now [2004] called the Niagara Mohawk Building, was opened on
the site of Gruener's Hotel and Gardens
and is one of the most outstanding sights on the Buffalo skyline. The archtitects, Esenwein &
Johnson, had designed a building for the Pan-American
Exposition — the Temple of
Music (where President McKinley was shot). The tallest building at
the Pan-American Exposition (the theme of which was electric power) had
been the Electric Tower (architect, John Galen Howard) which had been
brilliantly painted and electrically lighted from top to bottom. The
Goddess of Light surmounted the tower, making it 386 feet tall. The General
Electric Tower also echoes nineteenth-century archeologists'
reconstructions of the Pharos, the lighthouse
at Alexandria, that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world. The imagery is most persuasive at night when floodlights
illuminate the top of the building. The building is a slender, octagonal 294-foot-high skyscraper sheathed in white-glazed terra cotta that makes it gleam after every rainfall. On top of the 14-story building there in a three-tiered tower crowned with a cupola and ball, looking very much like a white-frosted wedding cake in both daylight and floodlight. The original
building included the octagonal tower plus a Huron Street wing which
was heightened in the 1920's when an additonal wing on Broadway was
also added.
|
  Courtesy of Explore Buffalo |
