By Clarence Cromwell
It looks like the Buffalo Trading Co. building is history.
At the Planning Commission meeting Oct. 23, the commission unanimously gave developer Dave Flick permission to build his 12,878-square-foot retail center where the century-old Buffalo building stands now.
"It has architectural significance, but not enough, and it has historical significance, but not enough. The balance is against this old building," said Commissioner Kathy Morgan, who had urged Flick to save the building from her seat on the Historic Preservation Committee.
Flick hired architectural historian Anne Bloomfield to report to the commission on the building. She concurred with an earlier report by Carey & Co. Architects that said the building isn't worth saving because nothing historical happened there, because it's probably not old enough to be historical on its own, and because it's an architectural junkyard--the storefront, windows and siding were salvaged from other buildings.
Nevertheless, Morgan said, the little building lends a certain something to the downtown.
"There are many in Los Gatos who will be sad to see it go," Morgan said. "It's one of the few unchanged landmarks left in Los Gatos."
Flick said his development, dubbed The Plaza, will replace the Buffalo building by the end of 1997. Besides constructing shops and apartments on the site, he'll restore the Puccinelli house, the Soda Works and a historical Italianate masonry wall on the property.
Commissioners praised Flick's design for the new building. Len Pacheco said the proposal was good enough to justify the loss of the Buffalo building.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 30, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved