Alling and Cory (1910-1911)

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The Alling and Cory Building is an early example of exposed concrete construction, common in many of Buffalo’s daylight factories, and like many of these buildings, it is elegantly proportioned and detailed.  Georgian detailing surmounts the entrance, while a classical vernacular has been chosen for its cornice.  Walter Gropius, who published numerous anonymous photographs of Buffalo’s grain elevators and daylight factories in the 1913 installment of the Jarhbuch, included an image of a similar Alling and Cory building in Cincinnati as an example for European architects to follow.  For the emerging modernist architects of Europe, the structural honesty, and the limited use of overt stylistic attributes were hallmarks of the functionalism that they promoted for the 20^th century.