Photography of Buffalo, NY - architecture of buffalo ny

Architecture of Buffalo, NY

Buffalo has a wonderful portfolio of architectural styles ranging from Art Deco to Neoclassicism, Gothic Revival, Italianate and dozens more. The amount of detail in many of these buildings truly amazes me and recently I decided to start documenting some of my favorites. What really got me started with this idea was the thought of creating a post that focuses on where to find gargoyles within Buffalo (I'm still doing this in a separate post, BTW). However as I went around the city, I realized I needed to start a bit wider and start with a piece about all the details you can find. Many of these early styles incorporated stone figures or elaborate animals, gargoyles, block modillions, ancones (decorative brackets), Cartouches (oval shaped shields usually having dates or scribe) and much more. My personal favorites are the buildings that have unique plaques or statues of the influencers.

Here's a series of images I've collected over the past few weeks showing some of my favorites. This will likely "Part 1 of many", I'm sure you understand the abundance of photo data this topic can easily generate! Details of the building / area, the style and any specific details of the ornaments that I'm aware of are captioned below each image. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to send feedback through the form on my "About" page!

* Much of the information I provide was partially cited and/or gathered from http://buffaloah.com/

The Guaranty Building, displaying beautiful Art Nouveau ornamentation. SO MUCH detail inside and out <3

. The Sidway Building, Beaux Arts Classical Revival.

The Sidway Building, showing more detail with Greek Fret and Rosette molding (upper row). Terra Cotta ornamentation and ancones around the windows.

The Church of Science Building on Main and Virginia Streets. Beaux Arts Revival, built in 1898.

The Church of Science Building displaying it's beautiful scroll work, fluted columns and archways of the Beaux Arts Style, ornamented with glazed white terra cotta and limestone trim.

The Red Jacket, at the southwest corner of Main and Allen, was built in 1894 and is constructed of red brick and medina sandstone and many Renaissance Style Terra Cotta details. Above is a sculpture of Red Jacket, Stylized anthemion above Red Jacket, with cornucopia on each side as well as stylized anthemion.

The Wurlitzer Building (AKA Tent City) from 1895, one of my favorites on Main Street. There's so many different pieces on this building alone, including dentils, Ionic capital, several cartouches and over six unique trim patterns. This building has a bit of Beaux Arts Classical, Neoclassical and Classical Revival Styles all mixed in.

Another image of Tent City, with closeup details of the pillar scrolls and another cartouche to the left.

Ornamental scroll work atop a corner pillar on the Pierce Building in the Theatre District. Notice the small face above the leaves.

Shea's Theatre Building is heavily influenced by Baroque Revival style, constructed of steel and concrete with decorative terra cotta details engraved throughout. This image is what you see right above the massive window on the Main Street side of the theatre.

Next door to Shea's Theatre is 622 Main Street, home to the Tralf on the second floor as well as offices for a few businesses. We continue to see many of the same Baroque ornate details as its neighbor, however standout lion heads and more elaborate scroll work around the circular windows really stands out.

The Market Arcade Building was completed in 1892 by EB Green and William Wicks, Neo-Classical in Style with loads of ornate details to be found inside and out. The building's twin monumental facades (facing Main and Washington Streets) of arches, columns, pretty ornament, and sculptured bisons proclaimed that during the turn of the century, civic pride was more important than commercialism.

The Market Arcade Building was completed in 1892 by EB Green and William Wicks, Neo-Classical in Style with loads of ornate details to be found inside and out.The building's twin monumental facades (facing Main and Washington Streets) of arches, columns, pretty ornament, and sculptured bisons proclaimed that during the turn of the century, civic pride was more important than commercialism.

Found on Pearl Street atop the Road Less Traveled Theatre.

Diocese of Buffalo Catholic Center (also known as the Courier Express Building) at 795 Main Street. Completed in 1930, this Art Deco building boasts unique spandrel panels in between the windows. The image above shows a statue of Ben Franklin, one of many statues on top of the Courier Express building, all of famous printers of the past. Not shown here but very important to the building are the cast bronze printers' marks over the entrance.

Small details on the first and second floors of the Belesario Building, former home to the famous L.L. Berger flagship department store on Main Street years ago.

Details found along Main Street on the top of several columns near Mohawk.

Details found above a window on the Statler Hotel on Delaware Avenue. In 1919, Statler hired George B. Post & Sons to design a nineteen-story hotel -- said to have been the largest building in the state outside of New York City.

Another great find above a window on the Statler Hotel

Buffalo's City Hall building, easily one of our most iconic builds in regards to architecture overall. The exterior walls boast tawny Ohio sandstone and gray Minnesota limestone, above a base of gray granite. Above is a zoomed in shot featuring the top of the portico and several of the stone columns. Above those you see people engraved into the facade band, each section telling a specific story about the history of Buffalo. The workers to the left represent "Building and Growth of the City". To the right of that are two poets representing Architecture and Poetry. The lone woman on the very right represents "City of Buffalo as a Woman".

A picture of windows with bronze panels with Art Deco geometric design. Around the entire building are 12 carved figures in spandrels which appear to support the stone above. The figures above are a boy blowing a trumpet (left) and an adult woman (right).

Swan's neck pediment within a broken triangular pediment above the windows on the BAC Building at 69 Delaware Avenue. Just a few of the many details throughout this Colonial Revival style building.

Back to City Hall: In the center of each wing of the building there are wide, three-story-high window openings with carved stone panels on each side. These carvings represent nature's gifts, have the words "Agriculture-Floriculture," or "Vintage-Fruitage," inscribed.

Another view of the Statler Hotel with numerous details above the windows, the column scrolls and layers of trim molding.

A center shield displaying a masted ship and a sloop on the Hudson River (symbols of inland and foreign commerce), bordered by a grassy shore and a mountain range in the background with the sun rising behind it. This is found on the Walter J. Mahoney State Office Building at 65 Court Street. Liberty and Justice support the shield and an American eagle spreads his wings above on a world globe. Liberty's left foot treads on a crown, which symbolizes freedom from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Justice is blindfolded and holds a sword in one hand and a scale in the other, symbolizing impartiality and fairness.

The 9th and 10th stories of the Ellicott Square Building. The top faces are terra cotta figures with Anthemia and Medusa superimposed on a palmette with egg and dart molding below. The iconic boy on the corner is resting his arm atop the cartouche with laurel leaf wreaths wrapping around the bottom. I could honestly write a paragraph around the amount of details and ornaments within this picture alone. This building overall most likely holds the title of "Most Details in One Building" award.

Buffalo Savings Bank aka the Gold Dome.