Consider yourselves now on the inside track! Hidden far within labyrinthine corridors of the “arts floor” (Floor 7) of the Seneca Industrial Center is a fabulous little lounge, replete with La-Z-Boy and card table. According to sources, this groovy space is hipster central at the Larkin District.

The small space, set aside for late-night chill time and crack-of-dawn cups o’ Joe, is like the sacred communal ground of the building’s so-called Arts Floor, home to a community of art studios, furniture manufacturers, and Buffalo’s leading set designers. Ugly chair + tall ceilings + exposed brick/concrete walls = Urban Cool. Read the rest of this entry »

I seem forsaken and alone,
I hear the lion roar;
And every door is shut but one,
And that is Mercy’s door.
- William Cowper, “The Waiting Soul”

The lions of 757 Seneca Street, looming sentinel over the urban scene from the first story of the Kamman Building, are potent symbols of protection, prosperity, and resurrection.

The lion mask, a frequent symbol in classical Greco-Roman architecture, makes a reappearance in the Kamman Building, a Romanesque Revival, four-story apartment and retail block constructed in 1878 by Henry Kamman, the owner of one of East Buffalo’s largest slaughterhouses. Read the rest of this entry »

The popularity of window shutters is growing by the day and an increasing number of people are willing to buy them, thanks to the benefits and variety available. Though there are innumerable options to choose from, there are certain points you will need the keep in mind in order to ensure that you are buying the shutters which are right for your house. After all, you surely would not like to spend money on something that you cannot use, right?

Type of shutters

The first point that you will have to consider is the type of shutters you want to buy. While they are broadly classified as internal and external shutters, Read the rest of this entry »

Plans for future expansion, recorded in concrete projections at the eastern facade of the A & P Warehouse at 518 Hamburg Street, reveal optimistic prophesies of Buffalo’s continued industrial expansion from the early 20th century. The projections, forming a fine geometric pattern, are concrete supports for floor slabs of an expanded building that does not, and will likely never, exist.

The repetitive concrete stubs reveal an upbeat attitude about the city’s seemingly limitless economic growth, though an anticipated building expansion never came to pass. Read the rest of this entry »

“The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday and tomorrow. In that lies hope.” – Frank Lloyd Wright, 1958.

The Larkin Power House is an endlessly fascinating structure, and forms the background for this “urban scene of the week,” this blog’s periodical commentary on particular vantage points in the Hydraulics. The view is found at the nexus of yesterday and tomorrow, communicating history and possibility.

The scene, taken a few dozen feet from the New York Central tracks south of Swan Street, is archetypal of Buffalo’s Read the rest of this entry »