Big news, Buffalo- We have just successfully listed the Norstar Building on the National Register of Historic Places!
This is the first building in the City of Buffalo to ever be listed under Criterion G, as it is less than 50 years old. This is a very rare honor for ‘exceedingly rare’ modern buildings.
The Norstar Building was an important, formative project in the development of the significant architectural career of Mark Mendell and the firm of Cannon Design, a firm that maintains an industry-leading commitment to sustainable design today. Cannon also designed two other major buildings in the region around the same time as the Norstar Building: the Buffalo Metropolitan Transportation Center in downtown Buffalo (1977) and the Occidental Chemical Building in downtown Niagara Falls (1980). Both buildings influenced Cannon’s approach to energy efficiency at the Norstar Building, albeit in different ways. Together, they all demonstrate the firm’s pioneering approaches to energy-conscious design and continued commitment to improving energy efficiency in commercial architecture at a time when many firms were not placing these elements at the core of their design motivations.
kta preservation specialists completed the research and documentation to prepare the nomination for this successful listing on the National Register. We look forward to helping with the rehabiltation of this building!
You can read more about this, with language directly from the nomination itself, here.