Built in 1906 and heralded as one of the greatest office buildings of modern architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building in Buffalo was demolished in 1950. The lifecycle of the Larkin Building and its surrounding district epitomizes some of the changes in Buffalo’s economy and urban organization over the past century. Developed as a cutting-edge facility for industrial production, the building by midcentury had become so economically obsolete that its land was repurposed for parking. As developers talk about rebuilding Wright’s tower to anchor a new commercial district, the Larkin Building may contribute to Buffalo’s intensifying use of historic architecture to attract tourist dollars.
In the early twentieth century, Buffalo, NY was the eighth largest city in the United States. The Erie Canal, railroads, and the manufacturing business helped create and sustain the growing economy. Prior to the Erie Canal, most transferring of goods was by wagon or boats coming from the lakes. Once the canal was built, Buffalo became one of the major trading points along the Erie Canal acting as a starting point or finishing point for most traders. With the development of the railroad, Buffalo became a transfer point for the New York Central Railroad. The railroad companies wanted to be competitive with the Erie Canal trading system, and the land around the canal had the gentlest grades, so they developed alongside the canal. Also, both rail routes to Chicago terminated in Buffalo. In regards to the manufacturing industry, Buffalo received a lot of German immigrants via the Erie Canal. The Germans brought with them the great German tradition of metalworking and thus set up forges and foundries and provided training for the English immigrants who preceded them. These three factors; the Erie Canal, the railroads, and the manufacturing business, led to the economic boom of the city of Buffalo. On top of that, the Pan-American Expo in 1901, a possibility made from the economic boom, made Buffalo, NY the “temporary capital of the United States” because it received thousands of visitors from all over the world including Theodore Roosevelt and President McKinley. The expo featured state-of-the-art architecture from famous architects such as: Peabody & Steams; Babb, Cook, and Willard; and Green and Wicks. Most notably, the expo was known for its display of lighting powered from the newly installed power plants at Niagara Falls giving Buffalo the nickname “The City of Light” (Schlegel, p.2-6).
One of the buildings at the expo, the Larkin Company Building, was commissioned by John D Larkin to represent the success of his company. He is also the man who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build the Larkin Administration Building because of the success of his mail-order business. The Larkin Soap Company was created in 1875 by John D Larkin, a soap manufacturer who fell into the business of soap making because of a family friend. As a door to door salesman, Larkin built up his business and gained a valuable clientele. In the mid 1880’s, John D. Larkin experimented with mail-order business. Since most people were beginning to move outside of the city limits because of a pastoral utopian view, Larkin was able to use the mail-order business to his advantage. The stores that usually sold soaps were primarily located in the city, making access to soap difficult for the suburban dwellers. Therefore, they relied on the mail-order business of John D Larkin to acquire their soaps. A couple years later, the Larkin Soap Company began adding premium goods to their list of purchasable items. By 1893, the Larkin Soap Company was shipping soaps, perfumes, powders, and other household products all across the country. Because of the success of the mail-order business, John D Larkin decided he wanted a new, state-of-the-art administration building to house the mail-order business. Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned to design the new building, thanks to the efforts of Darwin Martin and William Heath, who had just had Frank Lloyd Wright design their personal homes (Quinan, p.10-15).
Designed in 1904 and built in 1906, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building became the focal point of the large Larkin Company complex and drew international recognition because of its many innovations. In 1900, money was pouring into the Larkin Company at such large quantities that some people said “it was removed from the envelopes and deposited into baskets and barrels, filling them rapidly” (Puma, p. 3). Since money was not in short supply, the 4 million dollar price tag did not discourage the approval of the project. During the eighteen months prior to the construction of the Larkin “A” Building, the design underwent substantial alterations. Beginning as a building similar to Louis Sullivan’s skyscraper work, the Larkin A Building evolved into one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s artistically envisioned office buildings. The building itself was constructed of dark, red brick, similar to the roman bricks he had used in the construction of Darwin Martin’s house, and five stories high with an annexed building of three stories. The roof of the building was a paved brick, which became a recreational area for the Larkin employees, their families, and guests; the Larkin Company had started a complex tour for the loyal customers who paid $10 a month for VIP access into the Larkin Company so it was not uncommon to have guests in the Larkin A Building. The entrances of the building were flanked by two waterfall-like fountains. Above the fountains were two bas-reliefs by Richard W. Bock. Bock was also the designer of the globes that were located on the central exterior piers of the building. Interestingly, the globes were removed in 1941 due to structural problems associated with their weight (Puma, p.3).
The interior of the building consisted of a five story atrium, or nave, surrounded by balconies. The upper level contained a branch of the public library, a kitchen, a bakery, dining rooms, restrooms, classrooms, a roof garden, and a conservatory. The interior walls were made of cream-colored brick. This allowed for light to bounce off the walls and into the space from the large windows and Wright-designed electrical fixtures (Puma, p.4).
Wright’s Larkin Building was seen as a model administration building during the early 1900’s with its numerous innovations in office architecture. The building was made for the comfort of the employees, which was part of the mission of the Larkin Soap Company; everyone was treated like family, even the customers. With this goal in mind, Frank Lloyd Wright made innovations in air-conditioning, recreational zones, the arrangement of desks, the desks themselves, and the use of day-lighting. Wright’s purification system is often referred to as air conditioning because of its mechanization but, in fact, it didn’t cool down the building at all. It took outside air, contaminated by the pollution of the industrial sector the building was in, and purified it in the basement of the building. Then, the air was pushed from the basement into the ground floor where it could be enjoyed by the employees. When the air was warmed and contaminated from the soot on the interior, it would be released through venting in the roof. The recreational zones included places like the conservatory; they became places where the employees could go to escape from work without actually having to leave the building. This increased the employee satisfaction rate which kept the production at the Larkin Company at a high rate. As for the arrangement of the desks, the desks were arranged by department within the Larkin Building and each department represented a different state. On the fourth floor there was NY group A, NY group B, Ohio group, and Illinois group. The other floors were split up in a similar manner with the main floor belonging only to group “A.” This allowed for the mail to enter from the top and flow downward to the main floor. The desks themselves were steel desks with an attached, foldable chair that was designed to lessen the amount of time it took to pull out and pull in a chair. This meant that more time was spent doing work. All of Wright’s innovations and respect for the employees could be compared to Albert Kahn’s, another architect building in industrial cities during the early twentieth century, respect for the average factory worker. Kahn, like Wright, also experimented with employee comforts like ventilation and day-lighting. He did it through using a new type of structure to open up the floor plan and the walls. As Kahn is known for being the innovator of factory architecture, Wright is known for being the innovator of administrative architecture (Quinan, p.44-84).
During the times of widespread architectural preservation, it is stunning to realize that the city of Buffalo authorized the demolition of the Larkin Building in 1950. The building had been a tourist attraction and had been recognized as a masterpiece of early modern architecture for a long time by historians such as Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Sigfried Gideon. Had the building been located on a commercially desirable land, the demolition probably could have been prevented. Unfortunately, the building was located in an industrial zone that had long been subsided by 1950 leaving the real estate value relatively low. The circumstances that led to the demise of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building were primarily economical but there are also non-economic factors that fed into it (Quinan, p.119).
In the early 1930’s, the development of cross-country highways, the rise of the trucking industry, and the opening of a major shipping canal in Ontario that circumvented Niagara Falls each contributed to the weakening of Buffalo’s position as a vital Great Lakes port city and railroad center. The filling of the Erie Canal stopped all trading by boat from Eastern New York, though most shipping was already declining because of the canal in Ontario. The decline of the railroad was seen as early as 1916 when the railroad system registered its first decline in active track-age since 1830. The two world wars as well as the depression masked the decline of the railroad. However, even in the years of the depression, the shift to truck transport had already become noticeable enough that in 1939, a federal commission proposed the building of the future Eisenhower Interstate Highway system because truck traffic was clogging up the nation’s roads. As the highways grew, the carload traffic fled the railroads. Oil and chemicals began to be transported by pipes and trucks, and grain was transported by barge. Goods that were once transported in an iced boxcar were being transported in an air conditioned tractor trailer and, of course, passengers that were transported by rail were transported quickly and easily by personal car and planes. The conditions that led to the popularity of the Larking mail-order business began to change as well. The chain stores that were originally only available in the city began to expand to the suburban neighborhoods where people had been moving and the increasing number of automobile ownership made it possible for people to travel into the city when the stores were not nearby. The increase in stores also meant the decrease in prices because of the high availability of the products; the Larkin Company couldn’t stay competitive (Quinan, p.119).
The Larkin Company’s internal problems were no less hectic than what was happening in the Buffalo economy. The beginning of the decline of the Larkin Building can be traced back to the late 1920’s. As a family man, John D. Larkin wanted to keep his company in the ownership of his sons and son-in-laws. This approach to business unfortunately led to the undoing of the Larkin Company. Real turmoil in the Larkin Company began in 1924, when William Heath, office manager since 1902, suddenly retired. Darwin Martin followed suit in 1925 after getting into a heated argument with John D Larkin Jr. during a director’s meeting. Three key members in the secretary department retired shortly after Martin’s leave. In short, John D Larkin Jr. brought about the retirement of most of the men who had been lead figures in the development of the mail-order business. In 1939, the Larkin Retail Store, located at 701 Seneca Street, was moved across the street into the Larkin Administration Building because there was “25% more floor space.” The administration made the argument that because of the rapid elevator in the building and the large amounts of natural lighting, that the store would become one of the most attractive retail establishments in the country. Because of this move, extensive remodeling of the interior began. From the time of remodeling in 1939 to 1943, business began to dwindle and the Larkin Company fell further into financial troubles. By 1943, officers of the company had already started selling off buildings that the company had owned so it didn’t surprise anyone when the Larkin Company was sold for an undisclosed sum to L.B. Smith, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania contractor. When the building was bought out, it still had nine months remaining on its lease. When the nine months ended, Smith abandoned the building until it was taken over in a tax foreclosure of $104,616 by the city of Buffalo on June 15th, 1945 (Puma, p.10).
The next time the building appeared in the news was on November 1, 1946 when the city comptroller reminded people that the building was for sale at an estimated $226,000. By then only one offer had been made; an offer of $26,000 from an unknown prospect. In an attempt to lure potential buyers, the city spent $6,000 an advertising campaign featuring “for sale” ads appearing in all the newspapers in Buffalo. By March 29, 1947, the city had received no offers to buy the building and was beginning to panic. They desperately asked many businesses to buy the building and remodel it to fit their needs but every offer was turned down. By October 1947, the “White Elephant” was almost totally useless. Every double-paned window was shattered, the entrance gate was toppled, and the iron fence topping the brick wall around the structure went into a wartime scrap collection. Twenty tons of copper plumbing and roofing, along with anything else of value, were also stolen. It became a site where neighborhood children would play among the rubble and throw bricks at visitors passing through the site. Jack Quinan states in his book Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building, that “there is no reason why this spectacle of decay cannot be amended, so that at least the Larkin Building need not look like the result of deliberate inattention on the part of public authorities” (Quinan, p.126). When the city opened up a cheaper buying option, the potential buyers started contacting them. Unfortunately, the city comptroller felt that nothing was good enough, probably a money-making scheme… but that is just a speculation. By March, 1949, the city had rejected offers for the building to become emergency housing, a welfare department, a brewing company, and a recreation center to house the boys throwing the bricks at visitors and raise them to become respectable men. Another suggestion by Ralph A Coppola to transform the building into a Buffalo Conservatory of Music was also rejected. 6 months later, on September 13, 1949, the city sold the building to the Western Trading Corporation for $5,000 with the promise of also building a $100,000 “taxable improvement” (Puma, p.12).
The corporation estimated that it would cost $100,000 to demolish the building, and it was noted at this time that everything removable had been stripped by vandals. This included 20 tons of copper, light fixtures, door knobs, plumbing, and even the boards used to keep the vandals out. Also, it was estimated that it would cost $8,000 to replace the windows. The final sale was made on November 15, 1949 and the site of Wright’s beloved Larkin Administration Building was set to be demolished (Puma, p.12).
Even though the building was vacant for seven years, public outcry only began after plans to demolish the building were set in place. On November 16, 1949, architect J. Stanley Sharp stated in an article in the New York Herald Tribune:
As an architect, I share the concern of many others over the destruction of Frank Lloyd Wright’s world famous office building in Buffalo. It is not merely a matter of sentiment; from a practical standpoint this structure can function efficiently for centuries. Modern engineering has improved upon the lighting and ventilation systems Mr. Wright used, but that is hardly excuse enough to efface the work of the man who successfully pioneered in the solving of such problems. The Larkin Building set a precedent for many an office building we admire today and should be regarded not as an outmoded utilitarian structure but as a monument, if not to Mr. Wright’s creative imagination, to the inventive-ness of American design (BEN, November 16, 1949, from Library files).
Demolition of the Larkin Building began in late February, 1950 by the Morris and Reimann Demolition Company of Buffalo and was completed in July 1950. This unusual, lengthy demolition was due to the fact that the building was “built to last forever.” Fire Lieutenant William J. Jackson of Engine 32, Seneca and Swan Streets said, “That was built, that building! The wrecking ball would bounce off it, it was that well reinforced” (BEN, August 25, 1972, p.1). The floors in the building were made up of ten inch thick reinforced concrete in slabs that were seventeen feet wide and thirty-four feet long. The floors were supported by twenty-four inch steel girders, which are now shoring up the mines in West Virginia. The bricks that were used to construct the Larkin Administration Building were used to fill in the Ohio River Basin to make way for Conway Park (Quinan, p. 128). I recently visited Conway Park in Buffalo and the graveyard of Wright’s bricks has become a desolate, dirty, and unattractive space. The park is surrounded by abandoned factory buildings and it has now become a place of high crime.
In May 1951, one year after the demolition, the Western Trading Company announced plans to build a truck terminal on the site. The building’s plans, built by I.A. Germoney, showed an L-shaped building with a frontage of 280 feet on Seneca Street and extending 280 feet to Swan Street where the frontage would be 50 feet. A fifty foot by seventy foot section of the terminal would include two stories, housing the offices on the upper floors. The estimated cost of the terminal was $150,000 to $200,000 (Puma, p.13).
On November 24, 1951, the Western Trading Company petitioned to allow the city council to change the site of their truck terminal from the Larkin site to a site at Elk and Dole streets because “it was less crowded.” They also stated in their petition that if they did build the terminal on the Larkin site, a valuable parking lot for the customers and employees of the Larkin Terminal Warehouse would be lost. Three days after the submittal of this petition, the city council approved the plan making the demolition of the Larkin Building pointless and gracing Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building site with a parking lot; one that is still unused today (Puma, p.14).
When news of the demolition of the Larkin Building reached Frank Lloyd Wright, he was reported to have said that the building had served its purpose and deserved a decent burial. He had known of John D Larkin Jr.’s alterations to his building for a long time. He vented about his feelings in his autobiography where he wrote, “They [the Larkins] never realized the place their building took in the thought of the world – for they never hesitated to make senseless changes in it after years” (Wright, An Autobiography, p.152).
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Administration Building was the start of a series of demolitions happening in the city of Buffalo to make way for what the city thought were improvements. “Urban Renewal” is what it was called. Renewal was a fresh, spring word that was echoing down the streets of most U.S. cities. In its wake, some of the very structures and traditions of a city falls. The German Insurance Company Building was demolished in 1957 to make way for the Tishman Building in Lafayette Square. The Lehigh Valley Railroad Station was demolished in 1960 and replaced with the lovely, and now abandoned Donovan Building. The Buffalo Public Library was demolished in 1963 to be replaced by a newer library to house more extensive collections. The new library occupies only a fraction of the old site making people wonder if it was really worth it to demolish the building. The D.S. Morgan Building, one of the first steel-structured skyscrapers in Buffalo, was demolished in 1965 to make way for the Rand Building. One of the most important of buildings that were demolished after the Larkin Building, and one of Buffalo’s biggest mistakes, was the Erie County Savings Bank in 1968 (Ryan).
The Erie County Savings Bank was constructed in 1893 in Richardsonian Romanesque style architecture and the electrical system was designed by Thomas Edison. During its lifetime, the ECSB was considered the “heart” of the city. Unfortunately, the downfall of the economy led to the downfall of the ECSB. Ellen Taussig, a reporter from the Buffalo Evening News, wrote the eulogy for the building:
A Buffalo duchess will soon return to the dust. Arched of brow (windows), ornamental of coiffure (turrets), and buxom of figure (granite walled), the old Erie County Savings Bank Building will bow to progress. For 74 years, this temporal grande dame, whose style of architecture is Romanesque Revival, has shared winds on her roof, snows in her eyes, and pigeons on her balustrades with her spiritual neighbor, St. Paul’s Cathedral. Side by side on separate triangles, which are unique characteristics of downtown Buffalo, they have stood (Taussig).
Similarly to the Larkin Building, the Erie County Savings Bank was seen as a monumental piece of architecture. There were outcries to prevent the demolition of both structures but it was too late. In the summer of 1967, the demolition of the ECSB began by the Niagara Wrecking and Lumber Co. It took the demolition team 3 months to finally demolish all of the ECSB. People gathered around to watch the demolition of the building and fought for the scraps that fell onto the street in an attempt to make money off of them. Two lion statues from the building were saved from the wreckage, both of which are now housed at Buffalo State College. The Erie County Savings Bank was replaced with the Main Street Mall, with its flat roof, its central heating, its adequate electrical system and its modern plumbing. The mall today is devoid of activity (Taussig).
The economy of Buffalo today is still struggling but on the rise after their fall during the depression and the end of the manufacturing era. When one visits Buffalo, NY, one can see the scars of the past all over the city; however, one can also see the signs of revival right next to them. One of the most influential revivals for Buffalo was the rebuilding of the Darwin D Martin House. The house, Frank Lloyd Wright built, had been partially demolished for the creation of three apartment complexes. Now, in the age of preservationism, many of the old historic buildings are being rebuilt to welcome a new type of economy – tourism. Buffalo believes that they can gain a large amount of tourist dollars by restoring old historic buildings and allowing people to tour through them.
Today, the Larkin Company is gone, as well as the Administration Building. Memories barely survive the once grand building and its business empire. For many years the Larkin buildings were left obsolete becoming dangerous and decaying places. Now, as the economy in Buffalo attempts to recover, plans to rebuild the Larkin District are underway. Heading the rebuilding effort is a development group called the Larkin Development Group. Inspired by the old Larkin Company and their success, the Larkin Development Group has plans to bring back prosperity to the Larkin District through commercial and residential investments. Already there is a concert venue, food shops, a bank hub, and their own offices. Hopeful historians and architects have also been donating money for the rebuilding of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building. They believe that since the Darwin Martin House was able to be recreated, the Larkin Building can also be recreated to become what it once was (LDG Website).
For me, the recreation of Wright’s Larkin Building would be one of the greatest things that could happen for Buffalo. In terms of an economic source of income, tourism is not the right approach to rebuild Buffalo. The rebuilding of Fort Stanwix in Rome, NY is a great example of a city that tried to base an economy off of tourism and failed. Rome, a city with a history much like Buffalo, saw the decline of its economy after World War I. Because of this, they attempted to shift their economic focus from manufacturing to tourism. By doing this, Romans hoped a full Fort Stanwix reconstruction could generate money and promote employment. In 1973, Rome brought in the National Park Service to fully reconstruct Fort Stanwix in its original location to realize Rome’s attempts at creating a tourist economy. They thought that they would receive 800,000 visitors annually which would make their income $1.9 million per year. Unfortunately, they didn’t even receive half of that amount annually and Rome is slowly dwindling and being forgotten. (Waite)
The lifecycle of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building from its conception to its demolition to the talks of rebuilding tells the story of the economy of Buffalo. The paper proves that one can look at the story of a piece of architecture and see that it mirrors the economy of the city. The rise of Buffalo led to the rise of the Larkin Building, the fall of Buffalo led to the fall, literally, of the Larkin Building, and the rebuilding efforts of Buffalo’s economy coincide with the rebuilding efforts of the Larkin Building. As seen in the case of Fort Stanwix, a tourist economy cannot sustain a city because many people don’t go back for multiple visits. The city of Buffalo is doomed unless they can figure out another way to rebuild their economy. John Henry Schlegel suggests that Buffalo should invest in higher education and medicine to rebuild its economy. Could listening to Schlegel help Buffalo return to the prosperous city it once was?
Images:
For Sale Ad from 1946. Buffalo and Erie County Public Library.
Demolition of the Larkin Building. 1950. Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.
Newspaper article from Buffalo Evening News on 03/08/1950 Buffalo and Erie County Public Library
Newspaper article from Buffalo Evening News on 05/16/1950
Buffalo and Erie County Public Library
Article from Buffalo Evening News, October 15, 1947
Demolition of Larkin Building. Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.
Article from BEN, September 14, 1949, about the use of the lot.
Article from BEN about the shifting of the use of the site. The site was then turned into a parking lot.
This photo shows the only remaining part of the Larkin Administrative Building. Photo taken by Jerry Puma.
Bibliography:
Abramson, Daniel M. “Boston’s West End Urban Obsolescence in Mid-Twentieth-Century America.” Governing by Design. ; Architecture, Economy, and Politics in the Twentieth Century. N.p.: University of Pittsburgh, 2012. 47-66. Print.
“The Buffalo History Gazette.” : October 2011. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.
“Frank Lloyd Wright and His Forgotten Larkin Building.” Bearings RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.
“Larkin Development Group.” Larkin Development Group. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May 2013.
PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.
Puma, Jerry. “Larkin.” Larkin. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.
Puma, Jerry. “The Destruction of the Larkin Company’s Administration Building.” SUNY Buffalo 1977. Print.
Quinan, Jack. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building: Myth and Fact. New York, NY: Architectural History Foundation, 1987. Print.
Ryan. “Buffalo’s Greatest Losses and Greatest Preservations.” Skyscraper City. N.p., 26 June 2011. Web. 6 May 2013.
Taussig, Ellen. Wings on My Heels: A Newspaperwoman’s Story. Portsmouth, NH: P.E. Randall, 1986. Print.
Waite, Diana S. History of a Nineteenth Century Urban Complex on the Site of Fort Stanwix, Rome, New York,. [Albany]: New York State Historic Trust, 1972. Print.
“Western New York Heritage Press.” Western New York Heritage Press. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.
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