A few weeks back, Newell brought designer Lesley Horowitz to the WBFO studios to meet News Director Mark Scott and to talk about the time she has spent documenting the industrial landscape. (See her Facebook album here.)
View image
Now a New York City based artist and designer who keeps a unique apartment in Buffalo, in a
former church on Bird and West (right), Horowitz says she was forced out of Buffalo for lack of a suitable job, but spends a lot of time here with the hope of moving back some day. Through her partnership in Officelab, Horowitz, who has an MFA in industrial design, does branding, industrial design, web design, graphic design and a whole host of boutique creative services.
In going away from Buffalo and returning, Horowitz says she's come full circle in understanding design and reuse. "What's incredible about going away is seeing what can be done back here," Horowitz says. "Look at the High Line in New York City and the Museo del Acero in Mexico. It's all about the possibilities that aren't about mowing down a structure or recreating it, but working with what you have." Horowitz has a clearer vision of what we have then, and she's come to see our industrial areas as a monument to Buffalo's past.
Horowitz points out the importance of Bethlehem Steel to the area, even as the site sits inactive, and she relates it to the southwest coast of England's mining structures. Specifically, Horowitz says that the British have left their defunct mines as ruins so that they stand as reminders of what once was.
She laments the loss of a steel smokestack at Bethlehem that could have been left as a monument to industry - an industry that she says, in essence, helped us to win WWII and brought about the next evolution in families; it was her grandparents toil in the factories that allowed her parents to be educated and, ultimately, afforded her the ability to work in a creative field in NYC.
Horowitz's loyalty to Buffalo remains, and as amulets to Buffalo's industrial era, she wears two necklaces; one is a small charm with the Bethlehem Steel logo and the other is a tag that Bethlehem workers would show when they picked up their paychecks. To see more of Horowitz's photography, visit the links in the first paragraph. Know also that it was Horowitz, through officelab.com, who created the PUSH website (pro bono, it should be known), a fine example of the work she and her partner do.
Hear the five-minute segment of Lesley's WBFO show from this morning, and listen to the full podcast from November 16th here.
Lesley is a rock star! We all look forward to her continued work in Buffalo!