The New Silevo manufacturing facility is one of the largest and first solar panel manufacturing facilities to be build in the United States. This 1.3 million square foot facility will employ over 1300 people and manufacturer 1 GW of solar panels a month when complete. The facility is sited on the old republic steel industrial site that was cleaned under the Federal superfund program. The challenges of this facility is mainly the poor soil bearing capacity, with a site that is almost completely rubble, the building is supported on a two way structural slab over caissons.
Manufacturing has a new face in Buffalo and this project will aid and continuing a revitalization of the city and the South Buffalo neighborhood that has suffered from a great deal of urban blight. While identifying human scale in a building that is 1309 feet long is odd, the Riverbend project has been segmented in a way to give it identifiable landmarks that give those coming to the site.
