List of surviving buildings by E. B. Green and Associates

Edward Brodhead Green and Associates in Buffalo, NY

Associates List

1884: Green & Wicks founded

1917: Wicks dies, name changed to Edward B. Green and Son [Edward B. Green, Jr.]

[? : Edward B. Green & Sons  (In 1922, it appears from the reprint below that E.B. Green's second son was a partner in the firm).]

1933: Son dies, name shortened to Edward B. Green

1936: Name changed to Green & James

1945:  Renamed Green, James & Meadows

1950: Green dies, name changed to James & Meadows

1952: Name changed to James, Meadows and Howard

1974: Firm dissolved
- Source:  Cynthia Van Ness, Director, Library and Archives at The History Museum

Architect:  born Buffalo, N.Y. May 26, 1892; son of Edward B. Green and Harriet (Edson) Green.

Educated: Nichols School, Buffalo, N.Y.; La-Villa, Switzerland; Milton Academy, Milton, Mass; A.B. 1914, Cornell University.

 Professional: Superintendent, Green & Wicks, Architects; member firm, Edward B. Green & Sons, Architects.

Aeronautical Activities: Cornell Ground School, May-July 1917;  Selfridge Field, July-Sept. 1917 A.E.F.   Issoudon, Nov. 1917; Clermont-Ferrand, Nov. 1917 to May 1918.

Flying Rating: Pilot and bomber observer.

War Service:  Attached French Group Bombardment 8(?)  and 4, March-July 18918;  Battle Marne, 1918; Hdqrs. Air Service, Charge Bombardment Training.

War Honors:  Croix de Guerre.

Member:  Secretary and Director, Aero Club of Buffalo
Present Occupation: Architect, Edward B. Green & Sons

Address: 75 Magara St.; home: 230 North St., Buffalo, N.Y.

Associates:

Also on Buffalo Architecture and History website:

On other websites:

Green & Wicks
1880-1917


............E. B. Green (1855-1950) ..........William Sydney Wicks (1854-1919)

The partnership was originally established in Auburn, New York, in 1880, shortly after William Sydney Wicks's graduation from MIT. Both men belonged to the first generation of architects trained in American schools of architecture.

Wicks, who was born in Oneida Country in central New York in 1854, trained at MIT and Cornell, where he later designed several campus buildings. In 1881 he went into partnership with Green at Auburn, New York; two years later they both moved to Buffalo, where the firm endured until 1917 when Wicks retired. In Buffalo,

In addition to designing commercial buildings, the firm was much sought after by Buffalo society for private residences.

For the Pan-American Exposition (1901), Green & Wicks designed three buildings: the Electricity Building, the Machinery and Transportation Building, and the fireproof Brick Art Gallery. E. B. Green was one of the three local architects on the Board of Architects.

For a number of years, Green and Wicks had its office in the Title Guarantee Building.

For more information on Green, see E. B. Green

For more information on Wicks, see William Sydney Wicks

Edward B. Green and Son, Inc.
1917-1933

Edward B. Green Jr. graduated from Harvard University in 1912 and then worked for his father's firm.

After Wicks's retirement in 1917, the firm of Edward B. Green and Son, Inc. was founded and continued until the death of Edward B. Green Jr. in 1933.

The firm's classically proportioned commercial buildings include the Genesee Building (1923), which is now renovated and incorporated into the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Buffalo. Use of building materials such as granite, stone brick and limestone gave the structures their characteristic solidity and an air of permanence. Green tempered this feeling of massiveness with careful detailing of the highest quality. An early example of this was the Marine National Bank Building on Main Street in Buffalo, notable particularly for its lobby. (Gordon Bunshaft remodeled the interior in the 1960s.) The Main Street entrance was framed with a relief sculpture "symbolical of the bank's name" by the local sculptor James E. Fraser who was also responsible for the modeling of the original acroteria on the Albright Art Gallery.


Mayfair Lane
Click on photo for larger size.
See also: E.B. Green Jr.'s "castle" on Mayfair Lane

In 1924 the firm opened offices at 1 Niagara Square on a unique, trapezoidal site. The interior rooms were of odd shapes, while the outside remained as respectable as possible.

Green's ideal of modern living was realized most closely in the design, completed with his son Edward, of the townhouse development on North Street known as Mayfair Lane (1928). The houses, set in an idealized English medieval atmosphere that included a small castle at the far end, end, were intended to accommodate a streamlined lifestyle within walking distance of the downtown business section without sacrificing modern conveniences such as underground garages. Green himself lived at 17 Mayfair Lane until shortly before his death.

The arrival of the Depression was the final blow for the Beaux Arts in America. E.B. Green, its most able practitioner in the region, was able to complete one last revival museum, the French Renaissance style Dayton Art Institute in Ohio (1929). This museum, like the Buffalo and Toledo galleries, is placed on a promontory, in this case, overlooking the Great Miami River. Its approaches are excellent, consisting of a high, Italian terraced garden with steps leading from the street below. However, the site's general plan failed to account for the realities of the automobile era, a problem common to American architecture during the period.

In 1929, Green and Sons designed the Garret Club and the Joseph Donner Residences in the French Provincial style. The following year they designed the Robert Donner Residence in the same style and the George F. Rand Residence in their beloved Tudor Revival style. These were the last major residential design commissions of E. B. Green's career. The remaining years of his career were devoted to public works projects, much of which (with the exception of the Green's work for the University of Buffalo) were handled by another partner.

Green and James
1936-1945

In 1933, E.B Green Jr. died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He had been architect-in-charge for the design of Crosby Hall, Norton Hall, and Lockwood Memorial Library at the University of Buffalo. A few years earlier, Green and Sons had won the commission to create a master plan for the entire University, as well as design several key buildings in the plan.

The highly classical plan which the firm produced used Lockwood Library as its focal point (much like the Rotunda in Thomas Jefferson's plan for the University of Virginia) with lesser buildings sited to establish a hierarchy of functions through geometrical relationships. The intent was to create major open space surrounded by academic buildings and auxiliary areas to accommodate student housing, athletic facilities, and service buildings. The strength of their plan lay in its ability to enclose the entire campus and to create a true sense of place and identity..

For approximately ten years, the firm worked on plans for Crosby Hall, Lockwood Library, Norton Union, Hayes Hall, Clark Gymnasium, and the Service Building. Once again, the firm chose the English Renaissance Period as inspiration for the design of the buildings.

From 1933-36, Green Sr. worked on the project until R. Maxwell James joined the firm, which was thenceforth named Green and James until 1945.

Green's work after 1933 includes the Tonawanda City Hall, a plain structure in pale stone dress with an art deco trim, possibly his only modern design. During the days of the Works Progress Administration, Green and James designed Memorial Auditorium in downtown Buffalo, a building typical of that era's publicly funded architecture.

By 1940, E. B. Green was working as a consultant for Green and James whose commissions were, for the most part, industrial or public projects.

Green, James and Meadows

E. B. Green retired in 1945 and, according to his friends, spent much of his time visiting his favorite clubs and receiving visitors at his residence in Mayfair Lane. He was remembered as having a quick wit and a good sense of humor.

Rufus W. Meadows joined the firm in 1945. which was renamed Green, James and Meadows.

Green died in 1950 at the age of ninety-five.

In 1974 James, Meadows and Howard dissolves, ninety-four years after the founding of the original firm.

Sources:

Page by Chuck LaChiusa
.| ...Home Page ...| ..Buffalo Architecture Index...| ..Buffalo History Index...| .. E-Mail ...| ..

web site consulting by ingenious, inc.