Designing Buffalo’s Future By Embracing Its Past
For years, Chandler Street, in Buffalo’s Black Rock neighborhood, was a shell of its former industrial glory, full of crumbling warehouses and abandoned factories. Now it’s a tech corridor replete with sleek offices, hip restaurants, lofts, and more.
Design Resources
In 2016, Rocco Termini began working with Benjamin Siegel, principal of BMS Design Studio and director of design with Signature Development, to transform one building after another on the seemingly forgotten street. “Our philosophy of historic preservation projects is if it’s not a structural deficit, we keep the original elements,” Siegel said. “They are little fragments of history.”
They applied this maxim to the building housing the tech firm Utilant, the anchor tenant at 155 Chandler Street. It’s the heart of the urban renewal project. They converted the former Linde Air manufacturing plant into modern offices for software engineers and other professionals by marrying restoration with modern upgrades. For instance, a former recessed loading dock became part of an entrance filled with multiple planters, and they added a 4,500-square-foot mezzanine for offices. In the process, they kept much of the original brickwork, many windows and doors, and even the smokestack.
“We centered all the offices in the interior, almost like free-standing boxes, with the historic elements all around,” Siegel said. “With the addition of multiple windows and doors, you can see past the new to the historic fabric of the building.”
Utilant is joined inside 155 Chandler by ODL, another tech company, Barrel and Brine Café and Taproom, BlackBird Cider Works, Great Lakes Processing Services, an accounting firm, and four loft apartments. Patrick Davis, Utilant CEO and founder, said moving Utilant’s office to the new space fit his goal of expanding the employee base. In the three years since Utilant relocated, it’s grown from 80 to 110 employees.
“We wanted big spaces for people to collaborate, and a hip, cool space,” said Davis, who worked with Termini and Siegel on the design. “One of the newer concepts is the mini-conference room, which allows two or three people to meet.”
The design team for Millington Lockwood collaborated with Utilant to choose furnishings that mirror the architecture’s contemporary industrial feel. They outfitted the public spaces and private offices with Herman Miller Canvas Office Workstations, Resolve System Workstations, and Groupe Lacasse Private Offices and Conferencing Solutions.
“Especially when revitalizing an older building,” said Deanna Ernst, Millington Lockwood’s director of design, “we want to ensure our designs complement the architecture and don’t jeopardize any of those historic elements.”
During construction, 166 Chandler, a building across the street that once served as the manufacturing facility for A&P shelving, became available. The 44,000-square-foot space is now home to Tappo Wood Fired Pizza, Salon in the City Suites, the Loft at Thin Man Brewery, and F45 Black Rock, a health club. Termini then purchased former industrial warehouses at 27 and 37 Chandler, which house commercial kitchens and a wholesale produce farm. His most recent purchase, 145 Chandler, became a swimming pool club in May 2021. A 15,000-square-foot addition to Thin Man Brewery is slated to open this summer.
“Rocco Termini is a mover and shaker,” Davis said. “He finds the right people to occupy his buildings and helps them design a perfect space to fit their culture.”