Lackawanna mayor wants 'ugliest building on planet Earth' torn down

Fans of modernist buildings that look like a pumpkin on stilts won't be happy about this: Lackawanna wants to tear down the infamous addition to its City Hall.

Mayor Geoffrey Szymanski wants to demolish the City Hall annex, retrofit the original structure in the rear where police and court offices are housed and build a new seat of government on nearby vacant land where a Catholic church once stood.

Szymanski said an engineering firm is drawing up detailed designs for the $6.5 million project, which can't move forward until the Steel City finds the money to pay for it.

Lackawanna officials have talked for years about replacing the 50-year-old, orange-paneled structure, saying it is expensive to operate and badly in need of repair. Szymanski feels passionately that Lackawanna deserves a more attractive City Hall and is betting he can get the project underway before he leaves office at the end of next year.

Read more: https://buffalonews.com/2018/06/24/lackawanna-wants-to-knock-down-orange-crate-city-hall-deemed-an-abomination/


Lackawanna City Hall at 714 Ridge Road in this 2013 photo. The city’s mayor wants to tear it down. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News file photo)