Sunday, September 20, 2015

Queen City Tour!!!(Part 2)




Sorry about the length of this, but it's too cool to not share!

Next up on this tour was One M&T Plaza! I honestly never even new what this building was for, but its basically the headquarters for M&T. The base of the building is made completely of marble. What's crazy is the top of the building though. The architect placed tiny chips of marble at the top of the building. Why you ask? It is actually used to self clean the building when it rains. I'm not sure how this works yet, but I will be looking into it! The building was built in 1966, right around the same time as the World Trade Towers. This was no coincidence though...as all were designed by the same man, Minoru Yamasaki. 
Next up was ECC City campus....originally a federal building and post office. On a side note, when this building was built in 1901, the Post Master General came to mail the first letter. He actually sent a letter to President McKinley inviting him to the Pan-Am Expo, where McKinley would eventually be assassinated. Since 1982 this building ceases to be a federal building and became ECC City Campus. The inside is really cool. It's very open, of course with a sky light due to the lack of electricity. You can actually see the worn out spot of the floor where people would come and drop there mail off. 




Next up was Ellicot Square, the first skyscraper. All of 10 stories. The building itself is beautiful. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside. My recommendation is you go visit this building, it is stunning. The outside amazing as well though. It's a roman design, with the statues of Venus and Mars. Go figure Mars is missing is head though. It of course has a sky light. The inside was redone in 1930 by William Wentworth Kent. The floor has an Art Deco theme, and actually has 23 million tiles. I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. 


Next we visited St. Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral was actually made from sandstone from Medina! It's amazing to think that they got the sandstone from Medina and floated it to Buffalo on the Erie Canal! It was designed by Richard Upjohn, who also designed the Trinity Church in New York City. The building was done with a gothic theme, and was finished in 1851. In 1888 there was a gas explosion and it blew the roof off. The only part made of wood. It was rebuilt by Gibson, making the roof higher and adding better columns. The inside has amazing stain glass images. They were very vibrant and bright. 











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