My favorite Buildings: Hertz Garage (Miller's Livery Stable)

This solidly built structure is an unheralded masterpiece in Downtown Buffalo. It sits on Huron Street just east of Delaware with the word Hertz painted on its chimney. You might think it has been abandoned since its windows have long been boarded up. Though somewhat forlorn this building is not abandoned. It has long served as a parking garage (and perhaps a Hertz car rental center?). It may have started out life as a livery or possibly a manufacturing building. I don't know much about this one but I love it and keep holding out hope that it some day might see a new and higher use.
It has an absolutely beautiful and very powerful facade composed of simple but finely crafted terra cotta and brick details. The brick is a rich red with the impossibly thin mortar joints - the kind that were common in the 1800's but for some reason are impossible to obtain these days.
The deeply recessed windows create bold shadows emphasizing the massiveness of the masonry walls. At the same time slender masonry piers frame the vertically grouped windows giving the building a light almost lacy feeling. These kinds of contrasts make for a very rich but understated composition. My guess is that this is an E. B. Green designed structure, but I could not find anything written about this beauty which is too bad. A bright light needs to be shone on this one so that it gets the notice it deserves and perhaps receives a renovation in the tradition of the recently restored Webb Building.

As the global financial crisis throws economies around the world into recession, more and more industries are getting hit. Banks have been bailed out. Auto manufacturers are drowning. Newspapers, though, were ahead of their time as they've been dying slowly for more than a decade.
Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and owner of our hometown Buffalo News, acknowledged the fate of newspapers in his 2006 shareholder letter when he wrote:
Nevertheless, this operation faces …
As you look outside your office window today, you're likely overtaken by the sheer beauty. Blowing snow. People hunched over, freezing, trying to walk into a 30MPH wind. You're probably reading from the script of American Beauty:
Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it... and my heart is going to cave in.
Or, maybe you're just thinking "Oh f#@!, I have to drive home in this s*$#."
Either way, we're here to lift your spirits.
If you'd li …
A two-story Delaware Avenue office building is getting a new face and a third story. The Buffalo Planning Board approved renovation plans for 334 Delaware Avenue at this morning's meeting. Owner 120 W. Tupper Street Inc. is undertaking the $1.2 million project. The bland building will get a new look and a glass third-floor addition.
At an after school program recently, some kids were doing homework, some were on computers and some were in the gym. But a small group of fourth-graders were designing and building boats out of household products- plastic cups, construction paper, and tape. They had been building and modifying their boats throughout the week, trying a few different design and construction plans. Now they were ready to race them across a tub of water, using a fan to power them across. After deal … 





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flyguy
I totally agree on this structure, it just has a very strong presence on that block along with the building next door. Both are gems not far off Chippewa and have alot of character. It would be nice to see smoething cmoe of both structures and dammit I just wish the other side of the street would develop already because the site of the former Convention Center Ramp and surface lots all along Huron are extremely deadening donwtown, just a big sea of asphalt. I would love to see this and the structure next door fit into a cmoplete streetwall along Huron on both sides of the street, that would be great and heck the area sits between Chippewa and the Theater District and all the things happening at the Dulski, New Era, Statler, Keeping my fingers crossed on the Issa Tower, and Courthouse. This area in downtown needs love. I feel bad for the Century Grill, with an and equally stunning facade sitting all alone.
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RonR
What a gem!!!!
Is this on the market and do you have the exact address?
While I love the Webb, I think this building would be great for offices. Not huge office floor plans but executive suites. Something to provide small 1000 and 2000 sq feet offices for start ups in the area. Maybe there could be some money secured for its restoration based on it working with small upstart companies.
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Biniszkiewicz
This building (and some things around it) are owned by Mark Croce. He might turn its neighbor (the white faced building on the corner of Franklin, next to the Continental) into a boutique hotel or other mixed use property. Whatever he does with it, he doesn't want to sell. He wants to develop. This parking garage has wooden floors. I am told by his attorney that the parking structure referenced here is physically very unusual in that the floors are suspended from above, as opposed to supported from below. I'm skeptical--not sure how well that could work, so I'll defer to anyone with knowledge.
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UrbanGuy
I apologize for my lack of architectural jargon, but I heard this building is very unique in that the floors are supported by the walls from above. Almost as if they are hanging, but not swinging around. They are just supported from above, instead of from pillars/columns below. If anyone knows this to be true and knows the term for it, let us know and whether or not it's true for the building.
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UrbanGuy
OH COME ON! i swear that Biniszkiewicz comment wasn't there when i wrote that!!
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BuffaloBloviator
I was told by the owner that the building was orginally designed to park horses rather than cars. The ramp incline angles are not suitable for parking cars so it is not currently being used for cars (or horses).
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Biniszkiewicz
UrbanGuy: I'm happy someone else has been told the same thing.
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allthingsbuffalo
i think thats the building with the huge-ass sailboat sitting inside by the window. quite the random sight.
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Jefferson
It's a great bldg and so is the white one next door (terra cotta covered?). Hope the owner does something soon with both of them.
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sally
Hertz - Rent a Horse?
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BuffaloSoldier
I too have heard that the Hertz Building was originally designed as a parking ramp for horses and carriages!
The building is now used to park cars. I know of someone who parks their car there daily. However, I am not sure how high that the cars are parked inside. I would imagine such confined spaces would become very difficult for cars to navigate on the upper floors.
I did not know about the suspending floors. It makes one wonder how a building such as this could be retrofitted into people uses such as offices or residential? God willing we will see that happen one day.
Although, keeping as a parking ramp would still suffice given that was its historical purpose. If that is to occur the owner should be forced to pretty the building up so that it doesn't look so derelict.
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MRodgers
The suspended floor system used back then is a "truss" system. It is also used on a building in the 200 block of Genesee Street that houses part of Emcom Industries (was once used as a furniture warehouse). The older building of Emcom has this truss system on the top floor - I visited it last year and it was wonderful. Somehow in my recollection of that visit, I think it was mentioned that the particular floor was used by the original owner for parties and as a ballroom - as the truss system permitted the floor lack of the pillars needed to hold the roof above.
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nick
I smell an Historic Tax Credit project...Buffalo's only parking garage designed for horses and carriages and no I'm not joking!
Bini, any word on Croce moving on these projects, I'd love to be able to actually do work at home.
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RonR
An Historical Parking Ramp. The perfect compromise for Buffalo!!!!
LOL
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NBJOHN
That building has micro brew written all over it. Well not literally written all over it.
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flyguy
Its an extremely long building from what I remember. Ah yes 8 floors of bowling, curling, and shuffleboard lanes!!!
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MRodgers
What would be nice here is an ESPN Zone - tying in the Chip Strip with New Era Cap and the Sabres throngs after the games.
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Hospitable
With the proximity to ISSAS bct site.. I'd assume the value of this property has tripled ( input by Bini would be appreciated)..
Seems like quite the project for Croce.. hasn't that boutique hotel, mixed use project been in the works for a while... and does croce have any other developments under his belt that don't relate to restaurants and fine dining?? Am I the only one who wonders if he could handle a project of this size.. let alone 2?
Mrodgers.. espns zone would be cool.. that seems like the perfect location too!!
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xosder
Bini - I believe the intermediate floors are suspended from the roof structure, this was common for stables to be constructed in that manner at that time. Essentially, a timber truss clear spans the width of the building at the roof level and steel hanger rods that carry the floors are suspended from the bottom chord of the truss. I would guess that the advantage of this type of construction would be the reduced size of the vertical elements -- the rods are only small 1" - 2" diameter whereas columns would have been much larger 12" to 14" = more usable space.
There are similar buildings, though not as tall, on the west side. There is one on Jersey St a few doors from Richmond which is a 3 or 4 story
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Andrew
Brimming with potential and the white next door neighbor too
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Frankster
As a former livery, the building might be eligible for the New York State Barn Tax Credit. Residential conversions do not qualify.
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RisingDamp666
Ever since Hertz shifted their horse rental business to the airport, I have been salivating over this building as a great big artist's lofts structure and by that, I don't mean "european kitchens" and "bluestoe flooring". I mean, floor -through RAW SPACE for creative enterprise.
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georgethomasapfel
A little bit of history on this building- it does not appear on the 1872 Buffalo City Atlas, the first one to list buildings and property owners, but it does appear on the 1894 Buffalo City Atlas as "Miller's Livery Stable" . With that info I Googled and found the NY State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation recently recommended it be included on the State & National Register of Historic Places. The C.W. Miller Livery Stable built 1892-94 attracted national attention for its construction and storage capabilities.
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georgethomasapfel
- And this indeed is another architectural gem in Buffalo!
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RonR
The evolution of this thread is why I love blogs. Great work George!!!!!
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chris69
steel your correct in that this building needs redevelopment...andneeds to be added to buildings like the graystone and the other brick structure adjacent to the redjacket that need to be saved and urgently redeveloped.
but steel this building certainly needs the attention of Buffalonians and developers but so does that long neglected white terra cotta building adjacent to it.
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pgf1948
It was very common in the mid-to-late 19th century to "hang" floors-- both in residential and commercial structures. Even ordinary farmhouses adopted the same principles, absent the trusses necessary forthe spans of business buildings.
This building is particularly eloquent streetscape, regardless of its structural system.
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rickyrick
Would be nice to see this building and the one next to it cleaned up. They look a mess right now.
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chris69
Isnt Huron closed to traffic because of the convention center.....these buildings wouldnt be in the condition they are in if traffic were reopened
one more reason the convention center MUST GO!
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xosder
Chris69: Huron is open to traffic. You may be thinking of Genesee Street, which used to link into Niagara Square and was cut off when the Convention Center was constructed. Genesee also used to head right down adjacent to City Hall and right to Erie Basin...Big Mistakes...
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gaustad
There should be a law passed in this city to prevent owners from allowing their properties to rot. These bligthed properties further humiliate Buffalo as the second poorest city in the country to Detroit.
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RaChaCha
Steel, I can't thank you enough for this excellent article, resulting in so much great information and commentary. I have often gone out of my way to walk past these buildings - slowly so as to take in the top-notch architecture - and often wondered about their story. For both of these buildings, the architecture is neither flamboyant nor over-the-top yet conveys a super high quality, as you suggest. And for two buildings that contrast in so many ways, together they present such a pleasing whole. The brick building, like the Webb Building you mention, is an outstanding example of the use of arcading - an important stage in the evolution of commercial architecture. These buildings illustrate clearly the quality and value of Buffalo's historic architecture - if well done, a knockout redevelopment opportunity.
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gaustad
how long has the current owner sat on these buildings?
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BROKEEPSBLOCKINGME
Chris69... Give it up on the closed streets already! We dont care! Opening the sweet Radial street plan will do nothing in creating any jobs or anything of value... Let it go PLEASE!
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Downtownjunkie
RESTORE THE RADIAL STREET PLAN!!!!!!!
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gpz
as i heard on the news that an old livery had collapsed i believe on jersey st and it was one of the last three in the city.i was wondering is one of the three one that is located at 728 west ave on the west side.i really dont know if people are aware of this building.i was born there in 1946 and lived there most of my younger life in an apartment that was known as murphy garage above the garage. i still remember the big wooden elevator in the center of the garage which i was told was used to store the slighes
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