Buffalo Manufacturing Works, Innovation Center

The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) has a mission to incubate, support and grow start-ups and small business with a medical research mission.  The success of The BNMC Innovation Center is acquiring property at 847 Main Street to expand their available leasable space.  The BNMC Innovation Center has contracted with two firms, EWI Edison Welding Institute (EWI) and Zeptometrix Corporation (Zeptometrix) to lease the 35,000 square foot facility which was originally constructed in 2000.  Watts was hired by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in 2014 to provide full architectural and engineering services for the renovation of the facility.

The building entry points are punctuated with vertical, stainless steel columns.  Building signage identifies each tenant entrance.  Many of the finishes including flooring, ceilings and walls have been updated.  Modifications to the building exterior include: entry modifications, painting, roof coping, additional building mounted security lighting, signage and modification of the “security office” fenestration at the southeast corner of the building.  

BIM (Building Information Modeling) was used to create a model of the existing building and all associated new work. The model was not only used as the main tool to create construction documents, but also for coordination between trades as well as for visualization purposes.

During the design process, Watts was contracted by EWI, as tenant, to provide renderings and a video fly through of their proposed space.  The imagery was utilized by EWI to apprise staff and stockholders of the company’s expansion activities, and as marketing information to advertise their expansion into the Buffalo market.  Programmatic elements of the design including reception, offices, training rooms, and warehouse production areas were highlighted in the fly throughs,  providing a glimpse into the relationship functional relationships of the spaces to the whole.  Renderings of specific “moments” within the design were developed to illustrate interior design elements including color, texture, and pattern of proposed materials and assemblies.