File:L. L. Berger Department Store Building, Main Street, Buffalo, NY - 52685131667.jpg

English: Built in 1929, this Renaissance Revival-style building was constructed to house the upscale L. L. Berger Department Store, which operated until the company went bankrupt in 1991. The building is made up of three sections, with the southern wing being the shortest at three floors, the middle wing being the tallest at eight floors, and the north wing having six floors. The base of the building is clad in sandstone with rustication on the first floor, doorways with arched transoms and bronze mullions, with corbel keystones above the doors, reliefs above the corbels, and large display windows with bronze trim flanking the doors, and a recessed doorway between two display windows at the south end of the facade. The second floor features eight-over-eight double-hung windows with arched fanlight transoms, corinthian columns between each pair of arched window bays, a small sandstone balcony with a balustrade below the second-story windows at the north wing of the building, with the central window on this wing being flanked by flagpoles, and the sandstone base being topped with a simple cornice. Above the second floor, the building is clad in red brick, with two tall double windows on the three-story south wing with a cornice and parapet above, and tripartite Chicago-style windows on the central and north wings between the third and sixth floors, with a band of decorative metal cresting atop the cornice at the top of the sandstone base at this portion of the building, and decorative carved sandstone headers above the windows on the north wing, which terminates in a parapet above a small cornice at the sixth floor. The central wing’s eighth and ninth floors feature recessed vertical window bays with recessed brick spandrels, central sandstone doric pilasters, oversized stone sills, and windows on the eighth floor with arched upper sash and keystones, with a small band of belt coursing at the base of the parapet. The north wing features an obscured facade along the former location of Genesee Street as well, which is the most ornate of the facades, featuring a fully intact cornice with brackets and decorative trim, but has been blocked from view and access by the atrium of the adjacent Hyatt Regency Hotel, which was constructed in 1981. The building today houses government offices in part of the building, with a residential apartment complex known as The Belesario occupying much of the former department store.