The latest Dinosaur Bar-B-Que location in Buffalo, NY is slatted to open February 12th. Optima Design is proud to be a part of the improvement of downtown Buffalo’s theater district by contributing civil site design and structural design to the new Dinosaur Bar-B-Que restaurant on Franklin Street.

The building was formally a Universal International film vault and Syracuse.com reports, “workers uncovered the marble logo under the ugly 1970s-era exterior they ripped down during construction.” The marble facade was then kept and incorporated into the design of the restaurant. “You start with the bones of the building, and the building really tells you what it wants to be,” company founder John Stage told The Buffalo News. “It’s not the easiest way to build, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Syracuse.com elaborates that, “in addition to the Syracuse original, [Dinosaur Bar-B-Que] has locations in Rochester, Troy, Harlem, Brooklyn, Newark, and Stamford. All were built from older, existing structures. The Syracuse location had been the N&H tavern for decades, and once housed a Cadillac dealership. The Rochester site was a former train station overlooking the Genesee River, the Brooklyn restaurant had been a tool and die shop, and the Newark location had many prior uses, including a boxing club where Ruben ‘Hurricane’ Carter once trained.”

Optima Design is excited to be a part of the development of downtown Buffalo in a way that preserves the city’s character.

Optima Design is doing the civil engineering, structural engineering, and landscape design for a new hotel in Ithaca, NY. The Holiday Inn Express will be a 4-story, 76 room hotel located at 371 Elmira Road. Construction is projected to start in spring of 2014.

Optima Design has moved! We are now located in the Tri-Main Center in Buffalo, New York.

The fully renovated Tri-Main Center, located at 2495 Main Street, is one of Buffalo’s leading mixed-use office, studio, and light industrial facilities. Built in 1915 and designed by Albert Kahn, Tri-Main Center is described by Preservation Buffalo Niagara as, “one of the largest examples of this kind of architecture extant in Buffalo today.” The TriCo Plant #2 was, “designed by one of the most well-known architects of daylight factories. Its terracotta and brick façade presents a handsome exterior along Main Street. Like other daylight factories, with ample floor space and a relatively open floor plan, TriCo Plant #2 is an ideal candidate for adaptive reuse, and currently houses a number of small companies, as well as a ground-story restaurant, and artist studios and exhibition space on the third floor. It supports numerous exhibitions throughout the year, and is home to the tri-annual Trimania event, at which local artists exhibit their works. In this way, it combines the programmatic conditions of both ArtSpace and the Pierce-Arrow buildings to serve local businesses, artists, and the community.”

Optima Design would like to welcome a new member to our team, Rose Sebastiani. With over twelve years of experience, Rose is proficient in both architectural and structural drafting and design. Rose’s strong design skills and insights from over ten years of experience as a developer project manager will make a strong addition to our design team.