Ethereum

Highrise #22

Collection

Highrises

Description

**Buffalo City Hall** **Art by:** Chris Hytha **Story by:** Mark Houser The city council of Buffalo made the best decision in its history in 1926 when it rejected its municipal architect’s uninspiring plan for a new civic building. Instead they turned to John Wade, an opinionated local designer who produced one of the most spectacular Art Deco highrises ever constructed. The elegantly stepped sandstone mass features stylized carvings and polychromatic terracotta in geometric Native American motifs. A frieze over the entrance depicts the city writing her future, surrounded by stevedores, ironworkers, and research chemists; the rear frieze showcases key historic episodes. In the lobby are vivid, almost comic book murals of musclebound men and gleaming women by William de Leftwich Dodge, whose work also decorates the Library of Congress and the New York State Capitol. Buffalo’s councilmen could not agree on which citizens to honor in their 13th floor chambers. So instead, identical busts represent various virtues, lit by a large stained glass skylight of the rising sun.Visitors to the free observatory on the top floor can take in the sprawling cityscape, Lake Erie, and distant Niagara Falls. A park in front has an obelisk to President William McKinley, assassinated in Buffalo in 1901. Bronze statues of the two presidents who hailed from the city, Millard Fillmore and Grover Cleveland, are the site’s sole concession to mediocrity.

Traits

Style

Art Deco

City

Buffalo

Region