Wendy's Extreme Make-Over
A $500,000 renovation to the decrepit building will add 1,500 sq.ft. to the second floor, a striking new façade and a balcony overlooking Main Street. The full-service marketing communications firm purchased the building in early January and will be the sole occupant of the revamped property upon completion.
The facade will feature a stone base, metal panels, a sun shade system and clear glass windows. There will be a two-story light well/atrium which will allow sunlight to penetrate the interior and rear of the space.
According to Jonathan Morris, AIA of Carmina Wood Morris, P.C., “The architecture is influenced by the De Stijl movement and a Mondrian painting which further established the movement.”
Carmina Wood Morris is project architect and a neighbor. The interior design and planning firm renovated the former McDonald’s at 487 Main Street for its own offices in 2005.
Currently located in half as much leased space at 47 Court Street, The Martin Group expects to grow from 22 current employees to approximately 30. Pending approvals, work is anticipated to be underway this spring and completed by fall.
Get connected: The Martin Group, 716.853.2757; Carmina Wood Morris, P.C., 716.842.3165
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allthingsbuffalo
love mondrian...love this design.
that photo really shows how obtrusive those damn light rail stations are
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RisingDamp666
I'm pleased that this strucure is being "biggie sized". As to the architect's "De Sijl" reference, I think those kinds of pretensions belong in a 1981 L'Architecture D'Aujourd hui magazine. This is Main St. Buffalo, not Yale University.
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buffaloed
Looks awesome! I am so excited that someone chose a Piet Mondrian painting as inspiration for a building facade design. I think that one of those small squares on the front should be a small cobalt blue tile to add to the theme.
I was riding on the elevated part of the subway on my way to a Sabres game and was noting how bad that block and the next one look absolutely terrible. This will hopefully prove to be a catalyst for the rest of the surrounding buildings to get some loving.
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RisingDamp666
Someone did indeed choose the Mondrian theme for a building...it's called the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles and it was all the rage in 1989. Nowadays, it's kind of cliched and passe. Not to dimminish this rebuild, which looks great without any references at all.
( memo to Johnathan Morris: what's really cool, is to quietly sneak high-end architecture and ideas into areas that would've been just as happy to see their Wendys resurrected .Next time, just say you're doing something "different".)
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300miles
memo to RisingDamp666: what would be refreshing, would be for you to simply respond with a post that celebrates the long overdue redevelopment of this site without the pretentious art history criticism that would be typical of college students who just read about the movement in yesterday's lesson. Next time, just say you're happy with the development, and save us all from your lectures.
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300miles
Love this project BTW... please build more.
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nonono
Hate this project. BTW ...dont build anymore. When are we going to pass some long overdue legislation that ALL downtown reuse incorporate loft style apartments and ground floor retail? I dont know who this Martin Group is, but he should take this filthy commerce to east amherst where it belongs. Downtown is for living - LOFT LIVING, and shopping - not working. Jerk!
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RisingDamp666
Sorry, 300miles, I guess that the architect in the article who was qouting De Stijl and Mondrian gets your applause for his "lectures". I'm happy with this development...but I will spare you nothing.
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nonono
300miles, if it weren't for his enlightened dampness, there would be next to nothing worth reading on this sight.
enjoy the regurgitated press releases of WCP, they are designed not to provoke any independent thought on your part.
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nonono
Mondrian?....where's the yellow? where's the blue? can we really discuss Mondrian without paying homage to the partridge family bus?
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300miles
"Independent thought"? Is that what we're calling asinine nitpicking these days? Oh OK! BTW - when someone criticizes EVERYTHING it makes their enlightened dampness much less enlightened.
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NBJOHN
Wendy's closed?????
Where am I going to get my square hamburgers?
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bison716
NIce project! Keep it moving.
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EcoEvo
Sounds great to me. Mondrian architecture cliched and passe? Don't tell that to these home buyers.
Mondrian inspired westside L.A. housing development http://www.leehomes.net/New_Homes/Mondrian/mondrian.html
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Martin
looks awesome! they should be given a medal for believing in the area and taking a step forward in developing this shameful stretch of main street. [actually, 90% of main is shameful, but maybe one day...]
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Biniszkiewicz
Excellent project. Thank you, all involved.
Memo to all who want in on the ground floor of Buffalo's resurgence: It appears Mr. Termini's proposed 500 block project is at a standstill and may never materialize. Therefore, all of the properties on the next block which were to be part of that project are available, most featuring motivated sellers.
Just as this project involves a solitary building, a handful of individual projects in the 500 block would go a long way toward changing the feel of Main Street. Ten or twenty years from now it might seem amazing to anyone that property right on Main Street, right in the heart of the CBD could be picked up for a song. If anyone wants to buy cheap, now is the time. Buy one property and redo it for your own business or home. Just across the street (northwest corner Main / Mohawk) the former Chinese fast food building is also being redone soon.
allthingsbuffalo: you're right about those stations.
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tjhorner1
Kind of off the subject, but after holding this in for weeks now, I have to say it...
When you read the posts of Nonono, doesn't he remind you of Stewie Griffin of Family Guy?
Read ANY of his posts in that voice, and you'll see what I mean. Knowledgeable, condescending, wordy, and always a little out of touch with reality. If you don't know who Stewie Griffin is...You Tube him, and watch a clip...
Hilarious!
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nonono
sir, truly you honor me by this comparison!
i find the secret to peace of mind and relative contentment in this 'modern' age is to stay as 'out of touch' with reality as humanly possible.
as Patrick Dennis, the favorite nephew of auntie Mame wisely opined......'marriage is great institution, but who wants to live in an institution?'
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nonono
ps tjh, if your such a fan how about throwing a few stars my way? i have a much maligned and sullied reputation to maintain on here!
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sbrof
I think that will be a fine addition to Main Street. Who cares what inspired them, they came up with an interesting design, something not found anywhere else in downtown or the city. It will bring a breath of fresh air to that block of Main. It probably needs to be a little edgy so that people will notice something has happened behind that poor example of urban design called a train station.
I like how they are also going to complete the second floor as well. Is this going to be a new construction or are they going to retrofit the old building with the new floor?
I do think it is a little amusing that a place that used to see square hamburgers is being recreated through the inspiration of an artist who loved squares as well.
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nonono
sbrof,
"I like how they are also going to complete the second floor as well. Is this going to be a new construction or are they going to retrofit the old building with the new floor? "
i like how u feign intelligence by inquiring as to the retrofitting of something that does not exist.....there is NO second story on the right half of the building.
what exactly is the difference between 'new construction' and 'retrofitting an old building with a new floor"???????????????????????? how many oxy morons does it take to replace a light bulb on main street?
it's kinda defeats the purpose of this technology if you're just gonna look at the words and not read the pictures!
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nonono
correction, left hand side of the building.
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Dan
What does this have to do with pond hockey? I thought this was Labatt Pond Hockey Rising, not Buffalo Rising!
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Balth
nonono- sbrof and I are going to take over this city one day, you had better be nice to us ;)
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sbrof
my question was whether they are going to rebuild this structure from the ground up OR if they are going to add on the second floor (the missing segment obviously) I can see that there is a partial second floor there but most buildings can no simply add a floor without sever structural reinforcement, which in most cases is cheaper to build new, especially for a building of this size.
So yes I looked at the picture, and wondered what method they were going to employ in order to get to their desired complete two story render.
Also there appears to be a pretty significant height difference of the floor to ceiling heights between the render and the picture. Granted I don't know the interior structural layout of the existing buildings but it looks to me like the first floor in the render is much higher than the first floor in the existing building, especially after you think about room needed for structure. That made me wonder if they are going to demo the existing second floor, maybe the whole structure etc. etc.
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NewBuffalo
Great project, company growing. The only bad thing is its just another move from one building to another. The subway station is an eyesore and needs to go.
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wizardofza
Love the design! This is the right kind of modern that's been sorely missing from Buffalo for decades. Modern can be human-scaled and graceful if executed by the right architect....as in this case.
Main St. is the right place for redevelopment efforts to be focused right now. Getting Buffalo's "main drag" back into play should precede most other downtown efforts.
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nonono
sobrf,
your lack or proficiency, and poor use of the English language is second only to your utter lack of depth (and height) perception.
there no available structural space on the left side of this building for two stories.
try this sunday comics visual aid.....extend and imaginary line from the middle of the right side of the building across the front of the buildings left side.
unless you imagine, and the builders intend, a 'being john malkovitch' secret munchkin annex, there is no 'there there' to build within!
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Architorture
it appears as though they are going to construct a roof at a similar height over the left portion of the building to create a second story over that half of the building. probably the most obvious indicator that this is not an entirely new construction is the existance of the chimney structure at the center of the building in both the existing and proposed designs.
as stated earlier mondrian is probably a little tired... with some adjustments to the horizontals and verticals you could probably call it wrightian which of course is all the rage in buffalo these days...
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nonono
"it appears as though they are going to construct a roof at a similar height over the left portion of the building to create a second story over that half of the building"
no, actually, it appears that they are constructing a second story on the left side of the building with as 'discontinuous' roof line as indicated by the rear roof line and half wall running from front to back.
in sobrf's defense, the rendering does not make 'visual sense'.
similarly, in BR's defense, it is perfectly in keeping with the often 'senseless' nature of this site's musings.
SCORE: Reason & Logic 1 / Smoke'N'Mirrors 1 with the potential for a contentious overtime sudden death to this and other main street development.
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benfranklin
Memo to Bini... your "ten to twenty" year outlook seems a bit at odds with a 'resurgence'. Let's say three to five, just in case you get a listing in the neighborhood.
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Biniszkiewicz
ben: re, listings: Got one: The old BK. It's a deal! Corner location (mohawk/main) lots of light, modern concrete and steel construction, access on three sides. Great vanilla box awaiting a redo.
In three to five years the neighborhood might be changed. But hasn't it already been ten since LL Berger's was converted and the Sidway was done? Maybe it's not been that long. I'm used to slow changes in neighborhoods. Things might or might not be much different in five years. They might be incredibly different ten or twenty years from now. Anyone who buys now may still own it in ten to twenty years. At that time, the payoff might be quite nice.
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benfranklin
If the money/building were the same, I'd head closer to BNMC. In that area you don't need to be quite so 'visionary' to see what looks like improvement/hope.
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ChocolateShake
Citations/references/links for Piet Mondrian from Wikipedia??? C'mon, can't Buffalo Rising do better than citing Wikipedia?
I would like to forward this article to my friends in San Francisco and New York to tell them about how the despair of downtown Buffalo is beginning to melt away with fresh ideas and private investment. Yet, I'm hesitant to forward any publication that includes such citations/references/links from Wikipedia - I fear that they might be suspicious of the accuracy of the information. (Honestly, its more embarrassing than silly comments from anonymous readers that follow such articles.)
Again, the news in itself is great. However, more energy needs to be devoted to polishing up the articles posted on Buffalo's premier web page.
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Architorture
nonono-
i'm not really sure what you are tryng to say there that is any different than what i said...the word 'similar' does not mean 'same'
also that 'half wall' is just the existing parapet wall that extends above the existing roof line... i would postulate that the roofs must be at different levels to allow for the new roof structure to bear onto the existing central bearing wall ... which should introduce a strange detail at the proposed skylight- or what appears to be a skylight...
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RisingDamp666
For god's sake, Architoture, ( I can see how you came up with that screenname ) we're talking about 4 or 5 thousand sq. ft. of prefabricated panels with some added "quotidian trim" that doesn't even present the polychromy of either Mondrian or De Stijl (no yellows, no blues), and you are arguing about a roof elevation? They will expand and they will have a roof. I'm just glad no one is proposing a multibillion dollar Atlantic Yards type project here: imagine you and nonono having it out over 4 million sq. ft. of Frank Gehry rooflines!
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nonono
Ewwwww damp,but you do titillate.......size DOES matter in circus scale world class building monstrosities......you block tease!
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Architorture
i thought it was previously established that the mondrian component of the design didn't really elevate itself for consideration in reasonable debate...
what appeared to be of interest to sobrf and subsequently nonono was the matter of how an additional story of habitable space would be created over the left portion of the building. i simply suggested a potential means by which that feat could be accomplished.
although this particular roof isn't all that interesting since it is given no expression at the main facade- rooflines are one of the most important and under utilized or ignored features of a building. so to have a discussion on the subject really isn't that ridiculous.
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RisingDamp666
Agreed, Architorture, but choose your battles wisely. This frisson of urban piffle rates below "grade elevation" in any enlightened discussion of architecture. Save your architortural big guns for the final draft of the A-K expansion. Personally, I've had to beef up my contract with Raytheon to meet my projected needs for that discussion. Hope you do likewise. As we used to say in the Reagan years, "it's all about 'throw-weights' ".
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Andrew
we need this and ten more like it on main st
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