Massing
All buildings along Washington Street and Ellicott Street that face the site under consideration for redevelopment express solid massing distributed evenly across their lots, each of which is filled entirely by the footprint of its respective building. These volumes have in common a regular, cubic shape and lack of projections, and together they create an even streetwall facing the parking lot. Each of these collections of commercial blocks, however, is formed by several adjacent volumes that vary in height, serving as independent but component parts that offer a variety of scales.
Roof type
Roof types found in the commercial blocks surrounding the Washington St. parking lot appear consistently flat (as seen from the sidewalk) with the exception of one (belonging to a building located on Elliott St.) that is end-gabled. It remains unclear if these roofs have parapets, and to what degree they are pitched. They lack overhangs apart from shallow cornices. Although adjacent buildings’ roofs do not always meet at the same height, together they form strong horizontal axes that continue the width of the streetwalls.
Fenestration
Patterns of fenestration—the characteristics and arrangement of openings within facades—of the surrounding buildings are rather consistent. The street-level floors of all commercial blocks facing the parking lot, programmed for commercial use, include entrances (often slightly recessed) flanked by large picture windows; on these floors, surface-to-void ratios are at least 3:1 and quite transparent.
Upper stories largely contain vertically oriented, divided-light sash windows spaced evenly across the width of the façade. The resulting bays are distributed at intervals of approximately eight feet; most nearby façades that are fifty feet across contain four upper-story bays.
In a few cases, a hierarchy is found among the windows of the higher floors, so that the uppermost windows have rounded arches while the remainder are simply rectangular or are surrounded by less elaborate ornamentation than those below them.
Cladding materials
Cladding materials on nearby buildings consist largely of brick, although a variety of clay compositions and hues were used. Stone is found in ornament, such as cornices, stringcourses, and window surrounds. St. Michael’s is clad in a red, dressed stone.
Articulation
Among all commercial buildings surrounding the parking lot, as well as on St. Michael’s, is a prominent stringcourse or cornice between the first and second stories that separates commercial spaces from what occurs above. Cornices spanning roof edges are also evident on most buildings. The degree of further ornamentation and articulation varies among the buildings, with some (such as the Market Arcade) featuring another stringcourse between its second and third stories.
Number of stories
Commercial blocks located along Washington and Elliott streets facing the Washington Avenue parking lot site stand largely between two and four stories tall. Those that are two stories tall are horizontally oriented, with widths of between seventy-five and one hundred feet; more narrow buildings have those buildings that have three or four stories.
Setbacks
The surrounding buildings largely feature no setbacks and end immediately at the sidewalk. The one exception is St. Michael’s Church, whose south façade is set back no more than ten feet from the sidewalk to allow for a narrow side yard containing a few trees.
Landscaping
The immediate area is characterized by a lack of green space infrastructure. Immature trees have been planted at intervals of approximately fifteen feet along the sidewalks that run the perimeter of the parking lot, to function as a screen. On the opposite sides of the streets—east of Ellicott and west of Washington—similar trees are found, but only occasionally. None are components of the historical fabric of the area.
Signage
Signage (not historic) is largely contained to non-projecting banners positioned on the facades of buildings.
Views in and out of site
A current sight relationship exists across the Washington Street parking lot, between the Washington Street entrance to the Market Arcade Building and the commercial blocks including and adjacent to the flower market.
St. Michael’s Church and the Niagara Mohawk Electric Tower form prominent visual anchors to the north and south of the subject area, particularly visible from Washington Street.
