الوصف

Buffalo's failed downtown shopping mall. Built during the America's urban dark age, otherwise known as the urban "renewal" era, this street-killing monstrosity severed Eagle street into two disconnected pieces, imposed a dreadful blank wall along a long stretch of Pearl St. and siphoned stores away from Main St. which was already losing most of its retail to suburban malls and plazas.

Now, whatever retail existed in this mall is almost completely gone. It's now safe to call Main Place a "dead mall." Many of the vacant stores have been converted into office space, largely for the non-profit and government tenants which have proven to be downtown's bread and butter in terms of office occupants.

The most benign aspect of this development is the office tower at the southern end of the mall which rises from the base of this massive superstructure. Even then, the need for office towers in downtown Buffalo is questionable enough, given the weak demand for outdated office space.