File:Roosevelt Plaza, Buffalo, NY.jpg

English: On the left, built between 1899 and 1901, this Beaux Arts-style building was designed by Edward B. Green and William S. Wicks to house the Buffalo Savings Bank. The building originally consisted of only the section with the dome at the corner and the first of two large bays to the rear along the angled Genesee Street, and did not feature gilding on the dome that crowns the building. The building was expanded in 1931 under the direction of Edward B. Green to the east along Genesee Street, adding another large bay and being fully continuous with the original building, with another addition to the north along Main Street in 1941, which is plainer than the rest of the building’s exterior and only matches the rest of the building in cladding material and the cornice. Further additions were made to the building, first in 1953, when the dome was gilded, then in 1955, additional offices, since removed, were built on the roof of the east wing and along Washington Street to the north of the building, featuring a Classical Revival facade, and in 1967, a six-story modernist office wing was added north of the still-extant building, all of which were indicative of the massive growth of the bank over that time. This section is an educated guess based on stylistic trends of the 20th Century, as architecture generally became more streamlined over time. Additionally, old photos and plans only show the building being the southwest corner of the current structure, and it is documented that additions happened in these specific years, but which parts of the building were added are not well-described by any source. In 1982-1983, a large postmodern office addition was built to the north, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, with the 1967 addition being removed to add a plaza, and the 1955 addition being removed for a new wing that connects the new tower with the old structure. The north facade of the 1941 addition was left exposed, and ended up being clad in granite panels, having an arched window added, and granite and fiberglass corinthian pilasters added to match the other facade of this addition. The addition was also removed from the roof around this time, and the historic building’s exterior was mostly restored to its circa 1941 appearance. The Buffalo Savings Bank rebranded itself as Goldome in 1983, upon the completion of the addition, but ended up folding less than a decade later in 1991 due to the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s. The assets of Goldome were split between Key Bank and First Empire (now M&T Bank), and the buildings were bought by M&T Bank, with the complex becoming known as M&T Center.

The building is clad in granite with an irregular wedge-shaped footprint, with a simple base above which rise fluted engaged corinthian columns, large arched windows with metal mullions, doorways with arched transoms, and fluted doric pilasters on the 1941 addition. The building is adorned with festoons and rosettes at the frieze, which spans between column and pilaster capitals at bays with smaller windows or no windows at all, with the original building being distinguished from the additions by the more ornate corbeled keystones above the windows, which feature lions heads, with the 1931 and 1941 sections of the building featuring simpler corbels above their respective arched window openings. Above the capitals is an architrave upon which are engraved the word “Bank” at the chamfered corner featuring the main entrance, and the words “Buffalo Savings Bank” above all the large arched windows on the original section of the building, which terminates in a cornice featuring block volutes, which runs around the entire perimeter of the building’s facades. Additionally, the chamfered corner facade with the entrance door has a stone balcony supported by decorative brackets with volutes, a cornice, and a stone balustrade. Above the cornice atop the main banking hall at the corner of Main Street and Huron Street, the building features an octagonal upper section with doric pilasters, stone panels, and a clock with an arched pediment at the chamfered corner above the main entrance, with the clock featuring roman numerals and a trim surround, which includes a cartouche flanked by laurel leaves and volutes, and an Anthemion above the clock on the top of the parapet. The panels above the large windows are engraved with the bank’s incorporation date and the building’s construction date, spelled out in roman numerals, and a cornice terminates the lower tier of this upper section. The next level is set back from the edge of the building below, and features more doric pilasters and a cornice, with three window openings on each of the long sides and at the chamfered corners, above which rises a dome atop a stone drum, ringed with decorative cast copper trim at the base, with the dome and its finial being clad in gold leaf.

Inside, the building features a large domed rotunda banking hall with decorative murals added in 1925 to the dome, pendentives, and walls, marble cladding on the walls, ionic columns supporting balconies that run along the middle of the large windows and feature decorative stone balustrades, porticoes at the major doorways with ionic columns and pediments, bronze grilles and fixtures, a decorative cylindrical customer desk made of marble and brass with a decorative urn at the top, which stands in the middle of the space on the former location of the original, massive, curved tellers desk, and a marble floor. The space inside the north addition has a vaulted ceiling covered in murals that match those in the rotunda, balconies ringing the edges of the space, and the same floor and wall materials, as well as details, from the main rotunda, which were replicated masterfully within the space. The east wing and the 1931 addition feature a vaulted ceiling with much simpler murals, decorative wall murals from 1925 that were relocated as the building was expanded and reconfigured, faux balconies with balustrades, and the same detailing as the rotunda, though simpler. The interior of the building has been reconfigured with the many additions made between 1931 and 1983, but has maintained its character despite the additions and alterations.

The building today is home to offices for M&T Bank, as well as a customer service branch, with the rotunda sometimes hosting events. Though long superseded in size and function by the adjacent office tower and other newer, larger banking facilities, the historic building remains very well preserved, and anchors the north side of Roosevelt Square.

On the right, built in 1912, this Beaux Arts-style 14-story skyscraper was designed by James A. Johnson of the firm Esenwein and Johnson, and is known as the Electric Tower. Inspired by the landmark centerpiece of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition and the Pharos Lighthouse that was a wonder of the ancient world in Alexandria, Egypt, the tower became the tallest building in Buffalo upon its completion, surpassing the earlier St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, which had been Buffalo’s tallest building since 1851, and remained the tallest building until the Liberty Building was built in 1925. The building originally was home to the Buffalo General Electric Company after which it was named, and was expanded with seven-story additions to the east and northeast of the original building in 1924-1927, designed by Edward B. Green and Sons, and a three-story addition to the roof of the building’s original east wing. The building was renovated in the 1930s, adding several Art Deco elements to the building’s interior. The building utilized electric lighting to help it stand out on the city’s skyline, and housed a series of local electrical utility companies, with Buffalo General Electric being absorbed into Niagara Hudson, and eventually becoming Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, remaining in the building until they sold it in 2003. The building’s lobby and office spaces were altered between the 1970s and 1990s in a series of renovations attempting to modernize the space, covering up and removing several decorative elements, while the exterior terra cotta was treated with care and repaired or replaced in a long-term maintenance program...