One of my favorite buildings is not a building at all, but is actually a park, that Park being Cathedral Park at Main and Church Street in Downtown Buffalo. This park is almost 100% paved over and is tightly penned in by buildings. It is the antithesis to the oft promoted "green space" that is thought to be so dearly needed in cities.
Green space has become one of those common terms thrown around without an understanding of what it actually means. In practice green space is often heavy on the green but severely lacking the "space" part of the equation. In reality the "green" part is the least important element in making great public urban places. This is starkly apparent when comparing Cathedral Park with the (unnamed?) park directly across Main Street. Both parks were created at the same time when downtown was massively reconfigured in the late 1960's and early 70's. The park east of Main is heavily endowed with grass and trees making it amply green. It however has no sense of place of space. The result is a little used park that in my opinion detracts from the continuity of Downtown. It ends up creating a large gash in the urban fabric that disconnects large segments of downtown.
Cathedral Park, on the other hand, weaves the city together. It draws people in and complements the structures that surround it. When architects talk about a sense of place Cathedral Park is what they are talking about. This little park is wonderfully scaled and though it is mostly made up of hard-scape materials it does have "green" in the form of a thickly woven roof of branches and leaves created by a grid of very beautiful trees. This park feels like a room and that is what makes this great urban "space". I could go on and on about this deceptively simple park. It really is one of Buffalo's top architectural treasures and as such has been one of downtown's favorite spots since its inception.
The second part of this 2-for-one favorite is the wonderful little red brick building at the corner of Cathedral Park and Main. This delicately detailed and scaled little building forms one of the distinctive architectural walls of the Park space and provides a unique punctuation point to its odd shaped corner. It lends a sense of elegance to Main Street. It somehow seems above the typical down and dirty 19th century commercial buildings. I could not find any history on this one but I suspect it originally served as a bank or investment house. It definitely speaks upper crust. It is not the kind of building you would expect to see painted with signs and advertisements as was common in the 1800's. Unfortunately, recent uses do not do justice to this little gem. It feels too closed up. I dream of the day an elegant restaurant opens up on its first floor or maybe a rare book shop, Something fitting its elegance and special Cathedral Park site.