4.4 Mid-Twentieth Century Development: Post World War II to 1960sAmerica’s architectural trends during the twentieth century reflect the technological advances and aesthetic preferences of a modern nation. The transition from Victorian ideals and historic building traditions shifted with the turn of the twentieth century as evidenced in Downtown Buffalo. By the mid-twentieth century America’s central business districts and Main Streets changed markedly as new buildings were constructed and older buildings were modernized. New architectural styles and modern materials were incorporated into the existing built environment. Buffalo held a significantly high proportion of late nineteenth and early twentieth century building stock reflecting the architectural tastes of these earlier periods. Classical and revival styles endured through the 1930s. During the late 1920s and 1930s, Art Deco and variations of monumental Classical form were embraced for the city’s municipal buildings through projects funded by Works Progress Administration. Other examples of Art Deco buildings include the Central Terminal, banks, and offices. After World War II, Art Moderne emerged as a popular style in the city.
Downtown Buffalo remained the core area for the city’s commerce after World War II. The downtown streetscape changed substantially during the 1950s. In addition to office space associated with financial institutions, new buildings were built to meet a growing commercial and office space demand in the city. Some downtown buildings were razed in order to modernize and remove what were considered outdated buildings. Other commercial buildings were refaced with modern facades and storefronts. New buildings and remodels featured larger window displays, recessed entryways, and windowless upper areas. Sleek lines and smooth facades of mid-twentieth construction often contrasted sharply with the existing historic downtown streetscape.
Former Buffalo Mayor Frank A. Sedita presided over a considerable mid-twentieth century transformation of the city’s urban landscape. Similar to other cities across the country at that time, Buffalo’s urban planners advanced the age of the automobile, low-density development and suburban-type living. Significant transportation infrastructure projects were completed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1957, the City received more than nine million dollars from the Federal Urban Renewal Association to rebuild the Ellicott District; an amount comparable to nearly $75 million dollars today. Urban renewal projects significantly changed the city’s historic building fabric with the loss of distinctive buildings and rows of character-defining commercial buildings. New modern municipal and office buildings designed by both national and local architectural firms gradually populated vacant swaths of the CBD. The City of Buffalo experienced financial difficulties at the onset of the second half of the twentieth century while Erie County remained on relatively sound financial footing.
Lafayette Square
Lafayette Square is singled out in this study to encapsulate shifting trends in City’s twentieth century architectural and development history of the CBD. Buildings sited on Lafayette Square represent changing attitudes toward twentieth century architectural design. Seven distinctive, architect-designed buildings are presently centered on the second largest square in the CBD. Historically, buildings sited on Lafayette Square have been replaced with new buildings serving different uses. The east side of the square, present location of the library, marks the original site of 1816 Greek Revival style Erie County Court House. From 1816 to 1873, the square was originally known as Court House Park. Prominent nineteenth century buildings formerly on the square include the following:
Earlier buildings on the square were government, religious, educational, and commercial in function. Table 4.7 provides a chronological and stylistic list of extant buildings on the square.
- Lafayette Presbyterian Church (later converted into Olympic Theater),
- St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church,
- Grosvenor Library,
- Buffalo German Insurance Co., Building, and
- the Arcade.
Building
Date
Style
Architect
*Mooney & Brisbane Building/Brisbane Building, 395 Main St
1894- 1895
Beaux Arts Classical Revival
Milton E. Beebe & Son
**Lafayette Hotel, 395 Washington
1904
French Renaissance
Louise Blanchard Bethune
Liberty Bank Building/ Liberty Building 424 Main St
1925;1961
Beaux Arts/ Second Renaissance
Alfred Bossom (1925); Duane Lyman Associates (1961 addition)
Rand Building, 14 Lafayette Sq.
1929
Art Deco
Franklyn & William Kidd; James W Kideney & Assoc.
**Tishman Building, 447 Main St
1958- 1959
International
Emory Roth & Sons (New York)
Central Library of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
92 Clinton St.
1963- 1964
International
Kideney Architects
Main Court Building, 436 Main St
1964
International
Duane & Lyman Assoc.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century with the construction of the German Office Building (ca. 1875), professional and commercial office buildings were constructed on Lafayette Square. Completed in 1895, the Beaux Arts Classical Revival Mooney & Brisbane Building / Brisbane Building (1894-1895, Milton E. Beebe & Son) is the oldest extant office building on Lafayette Square. At the time it was built, the seven- story Brisbane Building was the largest mercantile and office building in the city.
In 1901, the Lafayette Presbyterian Church was converted for use as a theater. Louise Blanchard Bethune’s French Renaissance-inspired Lafayette HotelLafayette Theater, was constructed in 1922 on the northeast corner of the square (demolished 1962). I
n 1925, the 23-story Liberty Bank Building was the first modern skyscraper constructed on the square. Four years later, the 29- story Art Deco Rand Building opened on the north side of the square and held the honor as the building constructed in Buffalo in the 1920s.
The architectural setting of Lafayette Square changed dramatically in the late 1950s when the six-story, cast iron-fronted German Insurance Company was demolished for a new 23-story International Style office building on the north side of the square. Designed by noted New York firm Emory Roth & Sons, the Tishman Building, (1958-1959) represented the first new office building constructed in the CBD since before the Great Depression. The building’s sleek aluminum and glass curtain wall exterior and stainless steel storefronts stood in stark contrast to neighboring buildings constructed with traditional exterior materials of brick, stone, and terracotta. Moreover, the building was designed from the outside to maximize the floor plan by minimizing non-structural or non-functional components.
(1904) was the first turn of the twentieth century building constructed on the square. A second theater, the
The concept of a building as an open landscape, limited and defined by its structural grid was adapted by local firm James W. Kideney & Associates with Paul Harbach in their Modernist design for the Central Library of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Kideney’s design set a standard for grand municipal architecture and state of the art library design at the time of its construction. Completed and dedicated in 1964, the new library building was constructed on the east side of Lafayette Square behind Cyrus Eidlitz’s 1887 Romanesque Revival- style Grovesnor Library.
The new library building’s striking white exterior consists of marble with granite accent walls balanced by substantial glass curtain walls. To maximize the utility of the two-city block site, the building was constructed over Ellicott Street forming a modern portal through the building. The at-grade tunnel incorporates modern materials as demonstrated with its gray and white mosaic tile walls, steel and glass entrances, rows of square columns faced with black marble, and stainless steel curb line barriers.
Kideney’s design incorporated a lecture auditorium, research areas, media and study rooms, administration space and an open landscape space designed for maximum flexibility to respond to the changing technology and space needs of the library.
As part of the new library plans, the Grovesnor Library was demolished and replaced with a spacious modern plaza. The gently sloping hardscaped plaza with its black granite faced perimeter walls provides a dramatic entrance to the library and serves as a transitional public space from Lafayette Square to the library.
The firm’s design for Central Library won several design awards, including the American Institute of Architects/ WNY Design Excellence Award, for its success as both a functional library and a civic design statement (Kideney n.d.). Presently the oldest practicing architectural firm, Kideney Architects continued to design Modernist-inspired commercial, educational, and healthcare-related buildings throughout Western New York during the mid- century period.
The Western Savings Bank Building (now Main Court Building) on the west side of the square was also completed in 1964. Designed by local firm Duane Lyman Associates, the Main Court Building’s International-style design complements the mid-century [International-style] aesthetic of the TishmanCentral Library buildings.
The Main Court Building consists of a 13-story rectangular block fronting Main Street offset with flanking 3-story commercial blocks, which serve as the horizontal base of the building. Modern storefronts wrap around the Main and Court street elevations. White marble panels accent the upper floors of the second and third floors.
Upper floors of the building incorporate a glass curtain wall with aluminum mullions and muntins and aluminum spandrel panels that is divided into bays by narrow strips of white marble. The Main Court and Central Library buildings represent the mid-twentieth century adaptation of modern designs by established local architectural firms previously associated with traditional architectural styles and forms of pre-World War II.
and
4.4.1 Other Mid-Twentieth Century Examples
Buffalo’s architectural resources of the recent past have yet to be placed within their appropriate historic and architectural contexts, both nationally and at the local level. A few of the city’s mid- century resources have reached the fifty-year threshold or will be meeting it in the next ten years. Buffalo has several examples of mid-twentieth century buildings incorporating Modernist styles and principles of design; some of which are located outside of the CBD study area.
Gordon Bunshaft’s 1962 addition to the Albright Art Gallery is an exceptional example of an International Style building in the city. Bunshaft, a Buffalo native, is best known for the Lever House (1951-52), which was the first modern International Style corporate headquarters in New York. The Lever House was instrumental in advancing the urban glass-box architecture during the 1950s.
Mid-century/recent past architects with commissions in the CBD include the following:
The Tishman Building and the 1962 Albright Addition are signature buildings easily placed within the national Modern Architecture context. Whereas, “non-high style” or more modest examples from this period in the city have not been fully documented and placed within a larger regional context as it applies to the city and suburban development. Mid-Century Modern office buildings and other commercial buildings are not often recognized for their design merits due to an overall under appreciation for recent past resources.
- Duane & Lyman Associates;
- James W. Kideney & Associates (Kideney Architects);
- Howard P. Bell,
- Emery Roth & Sons (New York);
- James, Meadows & Howard;
- Skidmore, Owings & Merrill;
- Minoru Yamasaki w/ Duane Lyman Assoc.;
- Harrison and Abramovitz;
- Edward D. Stone; and
- Pfohl, Roberts & Biggie.
As noted above, three excellent examples of International style-inspired buildings are sited on Lafayette Square. Two blocks south of the square is Minoru Yamasaki’s One M&T Bank Building, an outstanding example of an International Style office building. With the M&T Building, Yamasaki incorporated a design that was later fully realized in his design for the World Trade Center in New York. The building’s vertical support-columned exterior with larger, elongated windows at the top floors allow for expansive, open work spaces with no interior columns. The base of the building has a white and green marble exterior while only white marble is used on the upper. M&T Bank Building is part of the City’s iconic architectural legacy.
On a much lesser scale, one other notable example of the International style is local architect Howard P . Bell’s office building (built 1961) at 135 Delaware. Examples of Mid-Century Modern office and bank buildings are also located on Delaware Avenue to the north of the CBD survey area.
