Tour of Downtown

On Friday Morning, Carl and I decided to take the tour of downtown buildings.  It was a beautiful day for the tour, barely a cloud in the sky, perfect for viewing the architecture of the outside of the buildings.  The tour started at the Market Arcade building which was built to resemble a closed air market from Europe, maybe France.  It's about two stories with an open middle where you can see all the way up to the sky light  from the first floor.  The concept of being able to see the sky light from the first floor was present in many of the buildings on the tour.  This was to allow a great amount of natural light to enter the building before electricity was brought into the buildings.

The tour also took us through the Guarantee Building, Ellicott Square, the original main post office that is now ECC City Campus, Gold Dome and the Electric Tower as well as the M&T Tower.  All of these buildings were absolutely amazing.  The amount of detail work put onto all of these buildings is quite amazing, surely not possible by today's standards of wokmanship, let alone the economic feasibility of the details.

To the left is a great example of the detail work we saw.  This is the rotunda floor of the Ellicott Square Building.  The entire floor is made of very small mosaic tiles to create the design.  What craftsmanship!!!  Also, all of the railings for the staircases as well as the supports for the skylight are all wrought iron, amazing.

I also thought is was very cool that Buffalo was used as a prototype building.  The M&T Tower was originally designed as a prototype by Minoru Yamasaki.  Below is a picture of the building, can you figure out what this was a prototype for?  I will leave yo hanging for now and maybe post the answer in the next couple of blogs.  Feel free to comment on your answer.

Of all of the buildings we saw that day, I feel the best was the Electric Tower.  I feel this for two reasons.  One, I am totally into the Art Deco style of the building.  A lot of chrome accents inside as well as stone tiles and more.  For example, a simple letter box.  You can easily see all of the details put into something that you can see on so many street corners.  The second reason I really liked this building was because Carl and I got to speak with the head Engineer who was nice enough to show us the bowels of the building for our coal chute presentation.  I have never been in the basement of such an old building where we could see the original workings of the building.

All in all, I think we had a wonderful experience touring all of these buildings.  We got to learn a bit of history going through them as well as see the history and craftsmanship that went into all of it, from the little spikes put on the building ledges to keep birds away to the detail work in the stained glass of St. Paul's Cathedral.  From the terra cotta tile exterior of the guarantee building to the self-cleaning limestone of the  Electric Tower.  So much to see.......

Looking Up

So, for this installment, I am interested in commercial areas that are made for pedestrians.  I chose the village of Kenmore for two reasons.  One, I live close to the area so there was a bit of convenience, and two, I thought it would be a good area with lots to look at for this assignment.

I will admit right off the bat, I now think there are many other areas that could have been a lot better.  Walking about, I did notice many older buildings.  Some were store fronts, others churches and some public buildings.  I would have to say that the Town of Tonawanda Municipal building was one of the best.

I'm not sure exactly when it was built, I couldn't find the cornerstone, but I'm pretty sure it's close in age to City Hall, which was built in 1929.  Around the top of the building is some very nice scroll work as well as the words "Municipal Building".

I felt most of the buildings, unfortunately over the years, have lost a bit of their original grandeur.  Many of the buildings of the area have been "rehabbed" so original detail work has been lost.

This building above is a good example.  On the first floor where there are two commercial spaces, it appears that the outer facade has been covered with siding, while the upper two floors, probably unused residential living space, has been left with a brick facade as well as a shingled roof.  This roof was most likely slate originally.  Why someone would pay to get rid of an original slate roof is just beyond me.  My own house does have a slate roof and if it didn't, I may have not bought it.  The slate was really part of the charm that hooked me on the house.  It's because of my own love for the stuff that it does really bother me when someone rips it off.  Anyway, there were also a couple of other buildings and things that did catch my eye.  For example, two of the storefronts' signs were attached to the building with a wood picket board.

I thought this was pretty cool and reminded me of an old west town for some reason.  The wood itself was nicely painted but it did have a bit of an aged look to it leading me to believe that it had ben there for some time.

A couple of other buildings caught my eye  as well.  Two of them were single story buildings so not much of a second story to look at but but looked to have original roofs that are terra cotta tiles.

I liked both of these buildings for different reasons. Although they both have a similar roof, they both accentuate the building differently.  For example, on the building above, the roof is on top of the building with the neat concrete urns on top.  Meanwhile, on the building to the right, the roof tiles are actually on the front and side of the building.  On this one as well the owner has taken the time to accent the wood work on the building with a different color, even under the tiled roof line.

I would have to say, that I now like looking up at my surroundings, you never know what your going to see.  Some things could be very cool and interesting while others could be either boring or down right wrong.  Either way, it's all a learning experience as well as one less thing to be taken for granted.

City Hall

So today, Carl and I decided to take the afternoon tour of City Hall.

I have lived in Buffalo and its surrounding areas almost my whole life so I feel I have seen my fare share of architecture throughout the area and I'd have to say, it never gets old!  I've spoken to people all over the world and I am always proud to tell them where I am from.  Most just know of our affinity for snowfall and not much more, so to back up my own words that there is much more to Buffalo than snow, I was very happy to view this building from both the inside and out.

The tour started in the lobby of the building where about ten to twelve of us congregated.  I have to say, I was a little surprised that Carl and I were the only two students on the tour.  Most of the people were from the area but there was also a couple from San Francisco as well as another couple from Europe, I want to say Denmark but I can't remember exactly right now.

The tour was quite informative.  The tour guide, a retired high school teacher from Kenmore East High School was very knowledgeable about not only the building, but also why certain things were designed into the building.  For example, he explained why the building is shaped the way it is.  It is designed in the same fashion as buildings were designed in New York City where as the building gets taller, the sides come in similar to a step pyramid.  This was to allow fresh air to circulate outside the building and down to the ground.  Not much of a problem for where this building is located but still kind of cool to know and look for next time I'm in NYC.

Other things included in the tour was that the building took three years to complete and work started in 1929, right at the beginning of the Great Depression.  Also, we were able to see the Mayor's Office as well as the Council Chambers and the Observation Deck at the top to conclude the tour.  It was a beautiful day for the observation deck.  With the sun out, we could see all the way north to Niagara Falls and the Mist and all the way south to Ralph Wilson Stadium.  Sorry, no good pics of the Ralph, but I do like how you can see the mist of the Falls in this one Below.

I'd have to say, the highlights of the tour for me was the excellent architecture of the building, the amazing frescos and tile work in the lobby, and for me the geographer, being on the observation deck trying to see buffalo as a living map and seeing where everything is from an almost bird's eye view.

Thought these last 2 pics would be a good way to end.  The top is proof Carl didn't try to jump like one person did years ago, the poor guy landed on the flag pole!!! And I like the bottom pic due to the different time periods of Buffalo that are represented.  In the middle are some grain elevators owned by General Mills while in front of them is the HSBC Arena where the Sabres have made their home since the early 1990's and in the back, maybe a brief glimpse of the future with the Steel Winds project's wind turbines.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog about the landscape of Buffalo and the surrounding areas.  Due to the class name, History Of The American Landscape, as well as how the class is going to take us all through the history of cities and how they came to be, I felt "Building Buffalo" would be appropriate.  Please come back soon to see the ideas and images that will soon be filling all of this space.

Thought it might be appropriate to try and load a picture or two here on the maiden voyage.  Hope you enjoy.

This is a photo I took from the breakwall on the Niagara River.  Straight ahead you can see the Frank Lloyd Wright Boathouse as well as the Peace Bridge on the left.
Talk to you all soon.......