Home to M&T Bank in Erie County, One M&T Plaza lifts its 21 stories above you here in Buffalo. The 21-story International style, or New Formalist, tower was designed by Minoru Yamasaki with Duane Lyman Associates and completed in 1967. Its structural steel was produced locally by Bethlehem Steel as their V50 grade, a reminder of Buffalo’s industrial craft. The base of the building is composed of white and green marble, while the interior is finished in travertine. Outside, the building features a 75-by-225 foot exterior plaza that gives the tower room to breathe.
Before this tower rose, three notable buildings occupied this site: the Richmond Hotel from 1887 to 1888; the Iroquois Hotel, also known as the Gerrans building, from 1889 to 1940; and the Bond Clothing Company Building from 1940 to 1964. Those layers of history sit under the clean lines of the 1967 design, connecting past hotels and retail to the modern office block you see.
Picture the Richmond Hotel, the Iroquois Hotel and the Bond Clothing Company Building that once occupied this site, before Yamasaki's white and green marble tower replaced them in 1967.