Located along the Buffalo River and set among the historic context of Buffalo’s iconic grain elevators, the 301 Ohio Street project is the first of a multi-phase development on the re-established Ohio Street Parkway.
A five-story, 50,000sf mixed-use building with retail and office spaces and 21, one- and two-bedroom apartment units - providing commercial and residential vitality that will draw people to the long-neglected river’s edge.
In coordination with the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, the building is set back from the Ohio Street Parkway and close to the Buffalo River - sited to maximize views down the waterway and to encourage accessibility of the water’s edge.
The building’s massing is designed and articulated to complement the historic concrete structures across the Buffalo River. Recessed areas on the façades break down the scale of the overall massing, provide opportunities for tenant balconies, and create proportions that reference the historic grain elevators. To further emphasize this character, the structure is clad with a palette of materials and cladding systems that allude to the surrounding context; a fiber cement rain-screen system, corrugated galvanized sheet metal siding, profiled weathered steel panels and cumaru board siding all contribute to adding variety and warmth to the façades while “softening” the scale of the building.
The structure is a 3-story wood bearing wall and open web floor trusses supported by a two-story composite steel and slab on deck podium.
The site design incorporated green infrasturcture techniques to improve the water quality before discharge direclty into the Buffalo River and two sand volleyball courts.
