Just as we thought that we were getting our architectural act together, a design blunder was sure to arise. I’m talking about this building at South Park and Marvin, in the Cobblestone District. There have been signs of progress regarding this site for well over a year. The building complex is a mix of brick, cinder block and other materials. In the past, the building was painted white, and even though it was in need of a good fixing up, there was still some original architectural character to work with.
Over the summer, work started back up, and workers began removing the white paint from the brickwork. It was a positive sign about what was to come.
Then, all of a sudden things took a turn for the worse. Instead of capitalizing on the architectural integrity of the building, a completely new roof and facade came into play.
Instead of designing something that would play off the historic nature of the Cobblestone District, we are suddenly left with something that looks like a suburban office building or medical center. It’s really too bad, in this day and age, that owners/builders (I’m assuming that there is no architect) could be so insensitive to their surroundings and to the structures in their possession.
Instead of capitalizing on this:
We are left with this:
This building is situated directly across the street from the Seneca Creek Casino – a building complex that is certainly not historically sensitive but still contributes to the neighborhood. The historic Elk Street Lofts are nearby, as is The Creamery building.
If the Green Code was in place, I would think that things might be different for this building complex. It’s too bad that we are left with something like this. Buffalo has been subjected to this sort of cheap building work for decades. It’s worrisome that we still have to deal with these types of design mistakes after seeing so many success stories.
