A touchstone of the University of Akron commercial strip is now rubble, demolished to make way for a parking lot.

The building at 456 E. Exchange St. that for years housed a Buffalo Wild Wings (BW-3) grill and bar and boasted a concrete carving of a buffalo on an outside wall was torn down this week.

Akron artist Don Drumm — who has operated his studio/gallery/gift shop on Crouse Street behind the former building since 1971 — created the buffalo in 1990 for the BW-3’s owners.

Those who visited the strip earlier may remember that the buffalo was carved over top the original Drumm artwork of an armadillo. That creature promoted the former eatery and bar at the location, the Armadillo.

Drumm is known in the area and beyond for his smiling sun faces, embellished aluminum casserole dishes and wall murals.

Lee Manes, the owner of Sam’s Jewelry Emporium, next door to the former BW-3 building, bought the property last year so he could expand his longtime jewelry store’s parking.

"I think it’s a positive thing," said the jewelry business’s Curtis Post, noting the building had been vacant for a while.

"It was just an eyesore sitting there," he said of the brick structure, dating to the 1920s.

Sam’s Emporium previously had rented a small parking lot that is part of the former BW-3 property. BW-3, operated by local owners under a licensing agreement, closed in 2016 and for a time the building housed the Gridiron bar and grill. (The BW-3 name stood for Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck; the Exchange eatery was still known by its BW-3 name after the corporation began calling its restaurants Buffalo Wild Wings.)

"We need parking. We plan on being around for a very long time," Post said. "We have a huge investment in our building."

Sam’s moved to the corner of Spicer and Exchange streets, across from the University of Akron’s InfoCision Stadium, decades ago, after being founded in 1946 as a pawn shop/jewelry store on Howard Street in Akron. These days, while the business continues to offer loans, its focus is retail jewelry.

"I’m sad to see any of my work go," Drumm said, recalling how while standing on scaffolding he carved into concrete plastered on the wall to create the armadillo and then the buffalo. But he and the property’s purchaser both said it would have been impractical to try to salvage the artwork because of how it was affixed to the structure.

Besides, Drumm said, "it’s progress. They need a parking lot… He [Manes] sells quality stuff… he’s a part of the neighborhood."

Sam’s Jewelry Emporium’s owner bought the former BW-3 property for $325,000, according to Summit County property tax records.

"I just know artwork is not always forever," Drumm said, noting that the buffalo is not the first of his creations to be demolished or covered over.

A covered-up piece is less than a half-mile east of Sam’s Emporium at 661 E. Exchange. This building housed the former Lakeshore Jewelers, and in the late 1970s, the family owners of that business commissioned Drumm to create a large abstract mural on the building’s exterior. Lakeshore closed in late 2000 or 2001, and the mural was covered up by a subsequent property owner.

Between this building and Sam’s Jewelry Emporium is a Drumm mural that survives — on a retaining wall on Goodkirk Street, which runs along the west side of state Route 8.

Another Drumm wall mural — featuring one of his signature, chubby-cheeked suns and dating to 1971 — survives inside Sam’s Emporium. It dominates a wall in the store’s bridal room, where engagement and wedding rings are sold.