Seneca One Tower, all 529 feet of it, dominates the downtown Buffalo skyline above you. Up close you can take in the scale of a 40-story modern-architecture monolith that contains over 1,200,000 square feet (110,000 m2) of space. Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, the exterior was completed in 1972 and the interiors finished in 1974; the lead architect was Marc Goldstein, with John Merrill as partner-in-charge, and interiors by Davis Allen and Margo Grant Walsh.
Built between 1969 and 1974 at a cost of $50 million, the tower has worn names that trace Buffalo’s commercial story: Marine Midland Center from 1972 to 1999, One HSBC Center from 1999 to 2013 — the 1999 change coming after HSBC re-branded the bank as HSBC Bank USA — and now Seneca One Tower. Its design echoes the 33 South Sixth building in Minneapolis, a sibling project from the same firm. In 2021 the entire tower and four mezzanine floors were finished as part of a $150 million renovation by Douglas Development that added over 200 prime-rate apartments.
Picture this tower's names across the decades — Marine Midland Center, One HSBC Center, and now Seneca One.