Buffalo
City Hall - Façade
Buffalo, NY
July 2020 photos
Built:
1929-1931
Building was completed November 10, 1931.
Dedication took place on July 1, 1932, celebrating the centennial anniversary.
Architect:
Dietel Wade & Jones Overall design:
Center 32 story tower.
375 foot tower appears buttressed on each side by fifteen-story wings from which twelve-story wings step down on each side.
3-story tall center portico.
Support system:
180 caissons, set on bedrock, at depths of 36 to 48 feet below ground level.
Building materials:
Base - gray granite.
Main body - tawny Ohio sandstone and gray Minnesota limestone.
Upper floors - yellowish stone with polychrome terra cotta tiles at the top of the tower.
Window surrounds - Bronze.Style:
Art Deco
Art Deco imagery: stylized geometric images borrowed from ancient cultures, including Egyptian, Greek, and Native American (North and South Americas)
Cost: $6,851,547 plus architectural fees of nearly $400,000
Location:
Joseph Ellicott Local Preservation District References book:
John Conlin, Buffalo City Hall: Americanesque Masterpiece
On this page, below:
East elevation
Fillmore Monument
Left Bay
Center Bay
East elevation |
Fillmore Monument  Fillmore Monument Millard Fillmore  Fillmore Monument Three-story diagonal wall on the south side commemorating President Fillmore, paired with a diagonal wall on the north side commemorating President Cleveland ... Details, from top to bottom, below:  Fillmore Monument Stylized Art Deco American eagle ... See also: John Conlin's "Art Deco Style"  Fillmore Monument Top: Art Deco stylized triglyphs ... Chevrons/zigzags were used extensively in Native American art - and used extensively in Art Deco ornamentation ... Art Deco stylized Corinthian capitals (Art Deco imagery: stylized geometric images borrowed from ancient cultures, including Egyptian, Greek, and Native American) ... Art Deco geometric bronze window surrounds  Fillmore Monument Art Deco stylized Corinthian capital  Fillmore Monument, by Bryant Baker Baker also sculpted the Cleveland monument on the north side of City Hall, as swell as the statue of young Abraham Lincoln in Delaware Park in front of the Rose Garden. ... For more photos of this Fillmore statue, see Cleveland and Fillmore Monuments |
Left Bay Left Bay 15 stories tall ... Tawny Ohio sandstone and gray Minnesota limestone ... Details, from top to bottom, below:  Left Bay  Left Bay Chevrons  Left Bay Pinnacle in the shape of a small Art Deco building ... Colored, glazed terra-cotta  Left Bay Six details below:  Left Bay Detail #1  Left Bay Detail #2 - Capped flag holder? ... Quatrefoils ... Chevrons/zigzags  Left Bay, third floor Left jamb: Bas-relif figure with snowflakes represents November ... Right jamb: Cronus, Father Time, holding an hourglas to symbolize the end of the year, represents December ... Five other windows with ten other jamb figures represent the ten other months in the year  Left Bay Spandrel panel features bronze geometic shapes, some of which are Egyptian lotus images ...  Left Bay Flanking rosettes ... Sunflower on stalk with volutes  Left Bay Corn imagery icludes volutes  Left Bay First floor window ... Gray Minnesota limestone. ... Keystone in the window head ... Greek key (used extensively in Art Deco ornmentation) |
Center Bay Center Bay 32-story tall octagonal tower ... 3-story tall portico ... See also: John Conlin's "The Symbolic Tower"  Center Bay Colored, glazed tera-cotta ... Combination chevrons form Native American masks ... Art Deco stylized bas-relief American eagles  Center Bay Three center pilasters  Center Bay Ornamental geometric shapes  Center Bay - Portico Portico ... Octastyle ... Frieze sculptor: Albert T. Stewart ... There are three historical periods reflected in the images on the building: Native American at top of tower, pioneer scenes in the portico above the doors, and contemporary (1932) depictions on the portico frieze ... See also: John Conlin, "Colossal Entrance Portico"  Center Bay - Portico Frieze Frieze and reeded columns  Center Bay - Portico Frieze Placed about a dynamo are three figures suggesting Electricity and its subsidiaries ... Bottom chevrons/zigzags  Center Bay - Portico Frieze Chemistry and Healing  Center Bay - Portico Frieze Building and Growth of the City: men riveting bolts into steel beams  Center Bay - Portico Frieze Architecture and Poetry, with Age giving counsel to Youth  Center Bay - Portico FriezeThe central figure is an adaptation of a Sibyl of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. The ancient Sibyls were recorders and foreseerers of events. ... Book represents Bufalo centennial history  Center Bay - Portico Frieze The family as a social unit, the man carrying the strongbox representing Thrift, the woman and child depicting Motherhood  Center Bay - Portico Frieze Water commerce  Center Bay - Portico Frieze Education and Culture ... Owl  Center Bay - Portico Frieze Modern transportation by rail, by water, and by air ... Note plane at top, train ... Train engineer, ship crewman, pilot  Center Bay - Portico Art Deco: Stylized Corinthian capital with reeded shaft  Center Bay - Portico Reeded shaft with banding ... The first columns, historically, were reeded Egyptian columns ... These reeded columns make reference to the Egyptian obelisk in the McKinley Monument in front of City Hall ... On another level, Art Deco columns are reeded ... Banded columns were used by the Romans; here, the banding depicts modern industrial cables  Center Bay - Portico Granite base in the shape of ocatgonal machine nut studded with rivets  Center Bay - Portico Note ceiling, which is detailed twice below:  Center Bay - Portico Diamond-shaped coffered ceiling  Center Bay - Portico Zig-zag pattern ... Terra cotta octagonal flowers in coffers  Center Bay - Portico Transom panels with pioneer images ... Note waste container, detailed below:  Center Bay - Portico Native American imagery: corn, tobacco leaves, fiddlehead ferns(?)  Center Bay - Portico Seal of the City of Buffalo  Center Bay - Portico Pioneer image: Farmer  Center Bay - Portico Pioneer image: Deer hunter  Center Bay - Portico Pioneer image: Basket weaver  Center Bay - Portico Pioneer image: Log cabin builder  Center Bay - Portico Note banded reeds also used in the eight portico columns  Center Bay - Portico Chevron/zigzag pattern ... Corn(?) images ... Egyptian lotus images  Center Bay - Portico Circular burst of lightning bolt text: THE FLAG OF THE CITY OF BUFFALO |
Cleveland
Monument Cleveland Monument Three-story diagonal wall on the north side commemorating President Grover Cleveland, paired with a diagonal wall on the south side commemorating President Fillmore  Cleveland Monument For more photos of the statue, see Cleveland and Fillmore Monuments |
