While checking out the recent Gus Macker basketball tournament last week, I snapped a shot with The Statler in the background. Of course the hideous The Barnes Firm awning was still intact, which was no surprise considering I had once heard that we could expect the awning to remain for a number of years. As the rest of The Statler’s cheesy skirt was pealed away last summer, the maroon monstrosity on Niagara Square remained. Apparently the law firm had it written into a lease that the awning would remain up for advertising purposes.
That’s why I was shocked to see the awning come down this week. That’s right… as of today the ugliest and most visible awning in all of downtown has been removed. I guess that was just an added benefit to Cellino making hs way back into the fold. Regardless, just seeing the building unmasked after all of these years is great. Though most of the awning had been removed, the remaining segment made it hard to celebrate the visual enhancement. Let’s hope that in the future we can continue to remove the remaining tragic awnings from our historic building stock. Let’s also hope that they don’t just replace The Barnes Firm awning with another one… or at least one like they had there to begin with.
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