File:Former Buffalo Envelope Company, Buffalo, New York - 20211008.jpg

English: The former Buffalo Envelope Company building at 270 Michigan Avenue (corner Carroll Street) on the outskirts of downtown Buffalo, New York, as seen in October 2021. Built in 1907, this six-story brick structure is an excellent example of the Commercial style, or so-called Chicago School, of architecture that was popularly employed at the time in the design of large office buildings. Witness here the amply proportioned windows, restrained classical detailing such as the smaller round-arched windows on the top floor, and the Sullivan-derived aesthetic wherein a horizontal layering of decorative features on the façade combine with an emphasis on vertical spaces between windows to echo the design of a Classical column with base, shaft and capital. Also interesting are the continuous stone lintels atop the second- through fifth-story windows on the south elevation, which combine to form string courses delineating the separation of the building's floors. More specifically, though, the Buffalo Envelope building represents the more minimalist latter stage of Chicago architecture that came to prominence after the turn of the century, where features such as parapets with decorative masonry (the diamond pattern seen here was particularly popular at the time) come into play. Founded in 1895, the Buffalo Envelope Company occupied their 270 Michigan Avenue facility until 1988, when they moved production to the Quaker Centre Industrial Park in suburban Orchard Park, by which time they'd become a division of the Chicago-based American Envelope Company. The building is now vacant and for lease. In the background at left is seen The Marin, formerly known as the Main-Seneca Building.