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| The Dun Building |
By happy coincidence, the May 16, 1986, issue of Gusto that
contained the Third Lost Expedition’s final bar date also featured one of my most
significant Gusto feature stories on the cover. Dare I say, it was a landmark. The subject?
A major figure in local architectural history who at that time had been largely
forgotten.
E. B. GREEN:
The Man Who Built Buffalo
HAD THEY not
named the restaurant after him in the new Hyatt Regency Buffalo, E. B. Green
would be virtually unknown in the city he did so much to shape.
Aside from this bit of razzle-dazzle recognition, however,
there’s precious little other awareness these days of the many accomplishments
and incredible scope of the man who reigned as the dean of Buffalo architects
for more than a half-century.
Although Green’s finest creations – the Albright-Knox Art
Gallery
There are no texts on Green to match those on H. H.
Richardson, who designed the majestic Buffalo State Hospital buildings on
Forest Avenue; Louis Sullivan, whose Guaranty Building helped usher in the age
of the skyscraper; McKim, Mead and White, who left a pair of prime classical
revival mansions on Delaware Avenue at North Street, and, of course, Frank
Lloyd Wright.
Indeed, although the city’s most comprehensive architectural
study, “Buffalo Architecture: A Guide,” lists Green in its biography section,
it only hints at the extent of his activity, which was considerable. (See lists
below.) Even architectural historians can’t be sure they’ve identified all he
did here.
Taken as a whole, Green’s work adds up to the largest and, in
many ways, the most significant piece of inheritance left to the modern day
from Buffalo’s golden age – from the last two decades of the 19th century to
the years just following World War II, which coincidentally was the span of
Green’s career.
(Continued on Page 3)
The city, however, has a way of being careless with its
inheritances. One of Green’s most prominent contributions to the Buffalo skyline – the Genesee Building
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| Chamber of Commerce Building |
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| First Presbyterian Church |
As a profession, architecture was still in its pioneer stages
at that time. It was only in 1868 that M.I.T. became the first school in America
Wicks, who began his study at Cornell, gained his
architecture degree from M.I.T. in 1877. Teaching there was based on the
principles of the French Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which emphasized design and
aesthetic considerations – with a concentration on the works of architectural
masters.
The curriculum at Cornell, meanwhile, deferred design
considerations in favor of technical training, stressing the use of materials
that were true to their structural purpose. Here practical knowledge came
first, then style, the preferred style being Victorian Gothic. In his senior
paper, Green discussed the need for an “American” architecture.
For all that, Green and Wicks proved to be not so much
innovators like Richardson or Wright, who seized on an idea and refined it, but
rather synthesizers of many different styles picked up from a wide variety of
sources. They were incredibly eclectic.
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| Buffalo Savings Bank |
Green, perhaps because of the two-dimensional viewpoint of
Beaux-Arts, favored grand, classic facades. The Dun Building Pearl
Street Swan Street Genesee
Building Genesee
Street Buffalo
(Continued on Page 20)
Savings Bank, its plan takes
the flattened Roman archways and wraps them around a corner.
By stressing the classical in his public buildings, Green
helped turn-of-the-century Buffalo fulfill its
aspirations to become the equal of the great cities of Europe .
Even a structure like the Marine Trust Building at Main and Seneca, built in
1913, finds Green organizing the exterior in a reflection of the elements of a
classic column (base, shaft and capital), while creating inside a dramatically
grand banking room, exceeded in magnificence and size by few banks in the
country at the time.
On the State University of Buffalo’s Main Street Campus,
Green came close to creating an entire environment, mixing classical elements
with Georgian features drawn from colleges in England
Thanks to his prominence and his associations with the
business and social leaders of the city (he was, for instance, a member of the
Buffalo and Saturn Clubs and served on the board of directors of the Buffalo
Fine Arts Academy from 1899 until his death in 1950), Green was often called
upon to design homes for the same people for whom he built churches and office
buildings.
To compliment their aspirations to the lifestyles of European
nobility, he summoned up images of Renaissance-era baronial manor houses and
opulent villas along Delaware
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| Clement House |
His grandest residential project, however, no longer exists.
The home of industrialist and art patron John J. Albright on West Ferry Street Delaware
An Albright family anecdote recounted by historian Austin Fox
recalls how, during the fire, Albright encountered his architect among the
spectators witnessing the blaze and asked him, “Well, Green, have you brought
the new plans with you?”
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| Albright Mansion |
Inside was a grand spiral stairway, extensive paneling in
mahogany and oak, and spectacular conservatory that included artifacts from Pompeii
Albright also had Green design a residence for his son,
Langdon, on the same site, plus a third building, the only one that still
survives. It was a firehouse, intended solely to protect against a reoccurrence
of the disaster that befell Albright. Ultimately deeded to the city, which
designated it “Chemical No. 5,” it stands on Cleveland Avenue
Green’s less expensive projects, which are scattered
throughout the Delaware District and the Parkside area (see box), are solid,
well-thought-out, conservative Colonial Revival designs, appointed with
excellent woodwork, the result of a longstanding collaboration with the local
firm of Metz, Bark and Meyer, renowned worldwide for the elegance and finish of
their interior hardwood decorations.
One writer who grew up as a neighbor to a Green-designed
house on Ashland Avenue Ashland
“The house was certainly built for privacy, space for social
and familial gatherings, security, the weather and for the servants who were
part of the Victorian middle-class home. The house still has the original gas
jets visible in places, a rather steep back stair leading from kitchen to third
floor, an electric buzzer for the maid on the master bedroom wall …
“The east bay windows allow in morning light. In spite of the
presence of two high houses on either side, the house does not feel closed-in. Light
enters subtly through the cylindrical dining room corner windows. The general
feeling is one of brightness, especially on the first and third floors.
“The heavy oak front door, with its cut-glass pane, brings us
directly into the front hall. We face the front stairway, which elbows along
the north wall. There is a large closet tucked under the stairs and the
vestibule has room for boots, clothing and the mail (which in the 1890s was
delivered at least twice a day).
“The stairway has its corner landing window, bookcases on the
narrow projection overlooking the first floor from the second. The interior
woodwork has been painted years ago (but) it is still apparent as being of
superior craftsmanship and design.”
Green’s partner, Wicks, who served as the city’s parks
commissioner from 1897 to 1900, while Olmsted was putting the finishing touches
on South Park Jewett Parkway
That corner, incidentally, also features one of Green and
Wicks’ few whimsical designs, a miniature Swiss chalet.
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| Mayfair Lane |
After his son passed away in 1933, Green continued practice,
forming Green and James in 1936, then Green, James and Meadows in 1945. During
this period, Green adopted a classical modernist style, flattening the
architectural features into something of an institutional art deco, as can be
seen on the state and federal courthouses in Niagara Square
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| The Dayton Art Institute |
Perhaps the greatest recognition of his contributions came in
1938, when UB awarded him its highest award, the Chancellor’s Medal. Chancellor
Samuel P. Capen, citing him as “an artist and master builder,” saw fit to add
that he had “incalculably enriched the city … and dignified Buffalo
Some of Green’s Residential
Designs
(A freshly discovered one on Google in parentheses)
(A freshly discovered one on Google in parentheses)
38 Argyle Park
(137 Dorchester Road
528 W. Ferry St
677 W. Ferry St
680 W. Ferry St
5 Penhurst Park
27 Penhurst Park
33 Penhurst Park
180 Summer St.
257 Summer St.
263 Summer St.
295 Summer St.
307 Summer St.
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| 888 Delaware Ave., the Charles W. Goodyear House |
E. B. Green put his stamp on many corners of downtown Buffalo Niagara Square
Green’s other downtown structures include:
Chamber of Commerce
Building
Buffalo Savings Bank (Goldome).
Market Arcade .
Memorial Auditorium.
Broadway Garage.
Christian Church, City of Tonawanda
Church
of the Ascension Parish House.
City
Hall, City of Tonawanda
Commodore Perry Housing Project.
First Presbyterian Church.
Twentieth
Century Club.
United
Temple
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