32. YMCA Building/Olympic Towers
300 Pearl Street
 The building was commissioned in 1901 as a new facility for the second oldest YMCA chapter in the United States. Its architects, Green and Wicks, were chosen as the result of a design competition judged by nationally prominent architectural critic A D. F. Hamlin. In designing the English-Flemish Renaissance style building, Green and Wicks took advantage of the broad property on one of the radiating avenues just off of Niagara Square, a result of Joseph Ellicott's 1804 street plan, and sited the building to dominate the triangular intersection. Its ten-story center tower further distinguished the YMCA as one of the first tall buildings to be constructed in downtown Buffalo.
Green and Wicks were also sensitive to the philosophy of the YMCA movement and incorporated several features into the building in order to encourage single young men to adopt the conservative life style promoted by the association. The Buffalo YMCA was among the first to provide extensive accommodations for lodgers and was the very first to include a spa -- features that later became standard in YMCA building around the country.
Although its siting has been compromised as a result of new construction which altered the city street plan, the YMCA retains integrity of design and materials and recalls both Buffalo's greatest period of urbanization and the history of the YMCA in the United States.
The Central YMCA building in Buffalo, New York, is a steel-frame structure clad in tan-colored brick with windows, doorways, and decorative details, such as quoins and stringcourses, composed of white sandstone. A continuous base of gray granite supports the building, which is designed in the English-Flemish Renaissance style.
The building, the block plan of which approximates a right angle triangle, comprises three main sections. The tall central section housed on the ground floor a large lobby space. On the upper floors were classrooms, offices, dormitories, and a restaurant. The four story eastern section contained an auditorium, swimming pool, and classrooms. The four-story western portion, or Franklin Street Annex, as it was called, contained two gymnasiums and the Boy's Department.
Virtually nothing remains of the original interior finish or fixtures of the building, which has been vacant since 1978. Long before that time, unsympathetic remodeling had denatured the interior. With the exception of some of the dark oak paneling in the former tenth floor restaurant, no evidence exists today of the original finish or detailing of major interior spaces which were spoken of in contemporary accounts of the building.
Text courtesy of Francis Kowsky. Photo courtesy of Chuck LaChiusa.
Credits
Scripts: Denise Prince and Jane Kwiatkowski
Voice: Christopher Jamele of Jamele Freelance Services
Audio production: John Davis of Eclectic Electric
This project was made possible in part with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Tour content courtesy of Buffalo Tours.
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