When it comes to architecture on Linwood Avenue, there’s stunning, and then there’s uninspiring. Last year at this time there was a building that was so uninspiring that it could have won a prize. The 205 Linwood structure was so lame that it appeared to be some sort of storehouse for a Niagara Mohawk power station, or some other crazy unfriendly neighborhood front. To think that someone actually built this on one of the most historic and architecturally significant streets in all of Buffalo is a crime.
Fortunately there is an upside to this story. Over the last few months, this building has been seeing some improvements, which are being made in order to upgrade the structure into a dentistry – Winning Smiles Dentistry.
Does this enhanced structure fit in with historic Linwood, with all of its historic mansions? Not really. Is it an improvement over what was there? Yes. Could something have been built that would have more fittingly paid tribute to the historic nature of the street? Yes. Could it have been a multi-use building, with apartments upstairs and a dentistry downstairs? Yes. Would that multi-use building have been an additional money maker for the building owner, and a victory for the street? I would have to say, yes. Did that happen? No. Is having a dentist on the street, in a building that no longer looks like a bomb shelter better for Linwood than what previously existed? Of course.
It’s certainly a step up.