Hive City: Elevator B

Childs Street, Buffalo, NY, United States

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Hive City: Elevator B

Childs Street, Buffalo, NY, United States

Type

Cultural ›
Educational ›
Landscape + Planning › Public Park

YEAR

2012

Elevator B is a collaborative project
between graduate students from the University at Buffalo’s School of
Architecture and Planning and Rigidized Metals, a Buffalo based building
material manufacturer. The overall goal of the project was to successfully design
for the relocation and habitation of a colony of honeybees occupying a building
at Silo City, a dense cluster of grain elevators in Buffalo, NY. Elevator B was selected from a group of ten
entries by a mixed panel of jurors, who represented Rigidized Metals, the
fields of architecture and planning, and the bees.
Elevator B is an iconic gesture of the
regeneration of Silo City, both naturally and economically. The material
properties of the tower represent the cluster of material manufactures now located
around the site while housing the colony of bees. Visitors enter the tower from
below and look up, similar to the way one experiences the silos and bins of the
nearby Marine A elevator.
The 22’ tall honeycombed steel structure
was designed and built utilizing standard steel angle and tube sections. The
structure is sheathed in perforated stainless steel panels that were designed to
protect the hive and visitors from the wind, and allow for solar gain and
shading. The bees are housed in a hexagonal cypress box with a laminated glass
bottom through which the bees can be observed. This provides protection, warmth
and separates entry access between bees and humans. Professional
beekeepers gain access to the hive by lowering it, which allows them to ensure
the health and safety of the bees. This feature also caters to school
groups that will visit the site allowing children to get a close up view.
The tower’s orientation also frames key views of the surrounding
historic grain elevators and the new upcoming developments of Silo City.
The construction phase started May 14th at
the University at Buffalo Material and Methods Shop. The exterior metal
panels were developed by the team in coordination with and fabricated by the
project sponsor, Rigidized Metals. The entire project was fabricated and
installed by the team of students and was completed in the beginning of June.
The bees were relocated into the tower on June 8th and have been rapidly building
honeycomb inside their new home.

View the progress on our blog: hivecity.wordpress.com