Western New York Architecture Deep Cuts
Erie County Family Court Building, Downtown Buffalo, May 2020
The Erie County Family Court Building, 194 Pearl Street at West Eagle Street, Buffalo, New York, May 2020. Wherein architect Warren Wittek of the firm of Foit-Albert Associates bucks the prevailing trends of the day with a design that's almost wholly bereft of both Modernist austerity and Postmodern genre-bending. Instead, the simple but staunch Classicism of the design - columns of recessed windows separated by pilaster strips; prominent cornices crowning the second and sixth floors - recalls the "stripped" or "starved" style commonly used on institutional buildings of the early 20th century. The stepbacks on the upper floors of the corner bay, not to mention the chrome sconces and detailing on the entrance, further suggest an Art Deco influence. Known as New Classical architecture, this intentionally anachronistic design philosophy, while never exactly a dominant presence in the built environment, had begun to pick up steam by the turn of the millennium and can be seen variously as an amplification of the Postmodern criticism of Modernism's disregard for aesthetic forms or simply as an unbroken continuation of pre-Modern Neoclassicism. The courthouse was only one piece of an extensive program of centralization and modernization of Erie County's public buildings, a proposal that originated in the early 1990s and for which plans had solidified by 1995 to comprise this new courthouse, a slate of renovations to County Hall and its two annexes on Delaware Avenue and West Eagle Street respectively, and a never-realized annex to the U.S. Courthouse on Court Street which was scuttled when the construction of the ten-story Robert H. Jackson Building was instead announced. Relocating the county's Family Court was considered a priority of especial importance, as caseloads were rising by a factor of nearly 20% year-over-year and the operations were fast outgrowing the cramped two-story space at 25 Delaware Avenue that had been its home since 1965. The $35 million design was finalized in 1998, construction began the following autumn, and the building was opened for business in September 2001. In addition to Family Court, also housed here are the Erie County Probation Department and the headquarters of the ADR arbitration program for New York State's 8th Judicial District.
Erie County Family Court Building, Downtown Buffalo, May 2020
The Erie County Family Court Building, 194 Pearl Street at West Eagle Street, Buffalo, New York, May 2020. Wherein architect Warren Wittek of the firm of Foit-Albert Associates bucks the prevailing trends of the day with a design that's almost wholly bereft of both Modernist austerity and Postmodern genre-bending. Instead, the simple but staunch Classicism of the design - columns of recessed windows separated by pilaster strips; prominent cornices crowning the second and sixth floors - recalls the "stripped" or "starved" style commonly used on institutional buildings of the early 20th century. The stepbacks on the upper floors of the corner bay, not to mention the chrome sconces and detailing on the entrance, further suggest an Art Deco influence. Known as New Classical architecture, this intentionally anachronistic design philosophy, while never exactly a dominant presence in the built environment, had begun to pick up steam by the turn of the millennium and can be seen variously as an amplification of the Postmodern criticism of Modernism's disregard for aesthetic forms or simply as an unbroken continuation of pre-Modern Neoclassicism. The courthouse was only one piece of an extensive program of centralization and modernization of Erie County's public buildings, a proposal that originated in the early 1990s and for which plans had solidified by 1995 to comprise this new courthouse, a slate of renovations to County Hall and its two annexes on Delaware Avenue and West Eagle Street respectively, and a never-realized annex to the U.S. Courthouse on Court Street which was scuttled when the construction of the ten-story Robert H. Jackson Building was instead announced. Relocating the county's Family Court was considered a priority of especial importance, as caseloads were rising by a factor of nearly 20% year-over-year and the operations were fast outgrowing the cramped two-story space at 25 Delaware Avenue that had been its home since 1965. The $35 million design was finalized in 1998, construction began the following autumn, and the building was opened for business in September 2001. In addition to Family Court, also housed here are the Erie County Probation Department and the headquarters of the ADR arbitration program for New York State's 8th Judicial District.