Hamister Group is utilizing historic preservation tax credits to put a mix of hotel, residential and office uses into the Tishman Building on Lafayette Square. To be listed on the National Register, a property must be at least fifty years old and meet at least one of the four criteria for evaluation established by the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service. Hamister’s Tishman makeover, designed by Camina Wood Morris, proposes few exterior changes in order to qualify for the tax credits.
The Tishman Building meets criterion ‘C’ of the National Register as an excellent example of the post World War II skyscraper designed in the International Style by Emery Roth and Sons and constructed by Tishman Realty & Construction. The defining characteristics of the International Style were perfect for the speculative developer who was in search of the maximum, rentable square footage in their buildings. The Tishman Building retains a high level of period integrity.
Below is a synopsis taken from the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form prepared by Historic Preservation Specialist Kerry Traynor of kta preservation specialists.
The Tishman is the only example of Emery Roth and Sons’ work in Buffalo and stands visually prominent in Lafayette Square, and the Buffalo skyline, an important icon in the city. The exterior of the building retains a high degree of integrity, with minimal alteration to either its parte or material composition. It was designed and constructed with the intent of the real estate developer in mind. At the time it was the first building to be constructed in downtown Buffalo in 30 years and represented for the city the potential to enter into the post World War II building boom, in which Emery Roth & Sons, and Tishman, were prominent players.
Exterior
The primary elevations of the Tishman Building face Lafayette Square to the south and Main Street to the west. These elevations are composed of a glass curtain wall system, with aluminum mullions and muntins. The storefronts are detailed in stainless steel and black porcelain enamel, which wrap the structural columns defining each bay. The number of bays and the articulation and location of entries provide the only distinction between the south and west elevations.
Interior
As designed, the Tishman Building was intended to be a versatile space, which maximized rentable square footage. The only interior space designed by the architect was the foyer. The basement, 1st floor foyer, and mechanical spaces were the only truly defined spaces functionally. The remaining floors followed the same plan, which could be designed to suit the tenant’s needs. Iroquois Gas signed a lease that included a portion of the basement, most of the 1st floor, the 2nd through 7th floors, and a portion of the 8th floors. Ebasco Services Incorporated New York provided the drawings for the interior design of the layout and finishes of these spaces, including the ornamental stair connecting the basement, first and second floors. None of the spaces designed and laid out by Ebasco, except the ornamental stair, remain today. On each floor the only predefined spaces were the circulation core and restrooms. The remainder of the floor area was defined by the column grid and could be broken up with partition walls or left open. It was speculative, rentable space.
Architect
Emery Roth designed steel frame structures clad in traditional masonry, with ornamental details that referenced both historic and contemporary styles. His sons, on the other hand, designed glass and steel skyscrapers, what Ada Louise Huxtable would dub “Rothscrapers.” Their work had a cookie cutter appearance and did not go without criticism. It was seen as developer driven with little regard for how the building appeared
Significant examples of the firm’s work include the 25-story Colgate Palmolive Building at 300 Park Avenue; the Look Building (1949, NR#353276); the 59-story Pan American Building (with Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi 1963, now the Met Life Building), at 200 Park Avenue, and the 110-story World Trade Center (associate architect to Minoru Yamasaki, 1968-71). Richard Roth, Sr. was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1968 for his contribution to the “science of construction.” By 1996 the firm ceased to exist due to financial distress.
Tishman Realty & Construction
In 1953 Tishman constructed one of the first commercial buildings to use an aluminum and glass curtain wall at 99 Park Avenue in New York City. Tishman Realty & Construction did not limit their business ventures to New York City. By the late 1950s Tishman was the largest landlord in southern California and operated office and apartment buildings, and shopping centers in the major American cities. Tishman Realty & Construction continued to expand, and by the mid 1960s it was the second largest office landlord in Chicago. Tishman Realty & Construction has constructed over 300 million square feet of building for its own and for its clients’ accounts.
The Tishman Building
In 1957 Tishman Realty & Construction purchased the Buffalo Insurance Building, a 6-story cast iron building constructed in 1875. Its intent, as indicated by Norman Tishman, the company president, was to demolish the older building and construct a modern, curtain wall building, with approximately 140,000 square feet of rentable office and retail space.
Buffalo Mayor Pankow praised the plans as a “milestone for Buffalo.” The 20-story, $5,000,000 structure was the first new downtown office building constructed in Buffalo in 30-years. Tishman argued that “downtown is the place where businesses ought to be located and that companies lured away from downtown locations are finding this out ‘the hard way’.”
At the dedication luncheon on November 18, 1959, Tishman indicated that his company “may not be satisfied building just one new skyscraper here.” suggesting that the building at the corner of Main Street and Lafayette Square was their “foot in the door.” The construction of a new skyscraper by Tishman Realty & Construction was seen as an indication of the hope for better days to come in Buffalo. At the dedication luncheon Mayor Sedita acknowledged the confidence Tishman exhibited in Buffalo, “which electrified some of our faint-hearted. The investment of the Tishman Realty & Construction Co. has been, for us, more than a business venture. It came at a time when a concrete expression of faith was most needed.” This hope and confidence was not misplaced, as Tishman would build millions of square feet in the coming decades, though none in Buffalo.
Buffalo’s First Metal and Glass Skyscraper
The Tishman Building is a “little” Rothscraper; likely what Emery Roth would have called a “sky scratcher.” Roth’s earlier work in masonry had risen much higher than the Tishman Building, and it was his sons who would design the soaring buildings associated with the New York City skyline. In the Buffalo skyline, earlier buildings clad in traditional materials and evoking historic detailing, form the context of this glass “econo” box when it was constructed in 1958. The older buildings are also much taller. The Beaux Arts, Electric Tower stands at 294-feet, while the adjacent Art Deco, Rand Building, stands at 359-feet, starting its first setback at Tishman’s terminal height of 245-feet. The Neo-classical Liberty Building located just to the southwest was constructed in 1925 and stands 345-feet tall. The steel frame structure of the Electric Tower is sheathed in terra cotta, while that of the Rand Building, and Liberty Building, is in brick.
The juxtaposition of the sleek, streamline profile of the Tishman Building against these early 20th century skyscrapers would have been an amazing sight in the 1958 Buffalo skyline. An article in the Buffalo News points out: “The new building will be enclosed in what is called a ‘glass curtain wall.’ … An unusual feature is that the building will rise the full 20 stories from the street without setbacks.” Glass and aluminum skyscrapers were relatively new; Tishman Realty & Construction constructed its first example in New York City in 1953. The Tishman Building was the first modern glass and aluminum skyscraper constructed in the city of Buffalo; there was, at the time, nothing like it in the city.
The International Style
The International Style was the perfect “style” to meet the needs of the speculative, developer-driven architecture designed by Emery Roth and Sons and constructed by Tishman Realty & Construction. The term International Style was coined in reference to the name of the book written by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock to describe the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1932.
The style, which evoked sympathetic relationships among structure, materials and function, was perfect for the developer who sought to maximum amount of rentable square footage possible on a given site. Not an inch of space was to be wasted. The International style lent itself to this agenda.
Buildings designed in the International Style typically have a rectangular or square footprint that is extruded in a simple cubic form, with taut planar surfaces that are devoid of applied ornamentation. The windows run in horizontal rows forming a grid that provide light into the open interior spaces. Glass and extruded aluminum typically form the curtain wall, while steel and concrete are the characteristic structural materials. As a result the style allowed for construction of buildings that did not have to respond to context and negated any reference to history. Location, site and climate did not matter, and as a result the style was perfect for the speculative developer whose main concern was a design solution that maximized rentable space at minimal construction costs. The skyscraper, constructed in the International Style by the speculative developer, was a capitalist machine for generating income.
Tenants
The Tishman Building at 10 Lafayette Square was successful, despite what Alan V. Tishman referred to as the “doubters and the cynics who said that redevelopment of downtown Buffalo was impractical and unrealistic, as was the construction of a modern office building in this area.”
In January 1957, before Tishman had completed the purchase deal for the property, they were still looking for a major tenant. It was not until February 14, 1959 that Iroquois Gas Company signed a lease with Tishman. Said company would lease the 2nd through 7th floor, a portion of the 1st floor for an entrance and bill paying, and half the basement for an appliance display room. At this time Ebasco Services Incorporated began the drawings for the interior design of these spaces. Iroquois Gas would continue to be listed in the Buffalo City Directories until 1975, after which the same occupied space bears the name “National Fuel Company.”
National Fuel remained the main tenant and occupied the entire building by 1987. Other long-term tenants included Fanny Farmer Candy Shop, which moved into the lobby in 1960 and remained a tenant for 20-years, Park Lane Hosiery, which arrived in 1965, and Eddie’s Barber Shop (1968). Park Lane Hosiery remained a tenant until 1977 and Eddie’s until 1983. Bethlehem Steel occupied the 17th, 18th and a portion of the 19th floor from 1960 until 1970, and then gradually reduced the square footage it rented until it vacated the building c1973.
Other tenants included Met Life; various airline ticket agencies, such as British Airways, American Airlines, Air Canada, and Alitalia Airlines; General Motors’ Pontiac division; insurance agencies and lawyers among other businesses. In June 2003 National Fuel moved its operations to Williamsville, leaving the building without a tenant. The building has been largely vacant since then.