Western New York Architecture Deep Cuts
Ira G. Ross Eye Institute (fka Louis Engel Building), Delaware District, Buffalo, March 2020
The Louis Engel Building, 1176 Main Street, Buffalo, New York, March 2020. A two-story brick building clad in glazed terra cotta whose ornate ornamentation is exemplary of the Art Nouveau style, the Engel Building's façade is bedecked with ribbons, festoons, and a large cartouche seen here at upper left, not to mention decorative keystones atop the segmental-arched windows of the second story, circular ornaments decorating the spandrels of those arches, and bas-relief grapevines adorning the Tuscan pilasters between the windows. At the time of the building's construction in 1922, the stretch of Main Street north of downtown was Buffalo's "Auto Row", featuring dealerships, distribution centers, and offices on both sides of the street; Engel's was an Oldsmobile and later Studebaker dealership and was in business through the early '50s. The building is now home to the Ira G. Ross Eye Institute, operated by the UB Medical School's Department of Ophthalmology.
Ira G. Ross Eye Institute (fka Louis Engel Building), Delaware District, Buffalo, March 2020
The Louis Engel Building, 1176 Main Street, Buffalo, New York, March 2020. A two-story brick building clad in glazed terra cotta whose ornate ornamentation is exemplary of the Art Nouveau style, the Engel Building's façade is bedecked with ribbons, festoons, and a large cartouche seen here at upper left, not to mention decorative keystones atop the segmental-arched windows of the second story, circular ornaments decorating the spandrels of those arches, and bas-relief grapevines adorning the Tuscan pilasters between the windows. At the time of the building's construction in 1922, the stretch of Main Street north of downtown was Buffalo's "Auto Row", featuring dealerships, distribution centers, and offices on both sides of the street; Engel's was an Oldsmobile and later Studebaker dealership and was in business through the early '50s. The building is now home to the Ira G. Ross Eye Institute, operated by the UB Medical School's Department of Ophthalmology.