On December 29, the NFTA, joined by government and civic leaders and Mrs. Sylvia Coles unveiled the new tribute signage at the Utica Station on Main Street in honor of Robert T. Coles, the famed Buffalo Architect who passed away last year.

Coles was a true pioneer in architecture, a community activist, and a founding member of the National Organization for Minority Architects. Coles designed numerous modernist landmark buildings in his native Buffalo including the Alumni Arena and Natatorium at the University at Buffalo, the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library on Jefferson Avenue, as well as the Utica Station on Main Street, where the special event took place.

In July of 2020, Mayor Byron Brown reached out to the NFTA and UB’s School of Architecture and Planning to honor the late Robert Traynham Coles, an African American architect who had recently passed away. Their collective decision was to rename Utica Street Station, a building the architect designed in a joint venture with University of Minnesota classmate Randy Vocbeck (of VVKR) in 1984, in honor of its architect. This station is a major example of Coles’ modernist design style, which incorporates the use of concrete to develop the waffle grid construction system that structures the upper foyer and lower concourse levels and students at UB helped design the new exterior lettering.

Coles earned a master’s degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following a fellowship in Europe, Coles returned to his native Buffalo, working for multiple firms before opening his own firm in 1963. Coles was a Professor of Architecture at both the University of Kansas and Carnegie Mellon University. Coles was the first African American Chancellor of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the first AIA Vice-President for Minority Affairs, and was named to the College of Fellows of the AIA in 1981. Coles was 90 when he passed away on May 16, 2020.

View the media release here.