BR's latest ARTiculate podcast was produced on location in the vicinity of Buffalo's grain mills. While the crew recorded the audio, I jumped in my car and took a drive around the various mills snapping some shots of the city's hulking industrial legacy. It was a really incredible experience just driving around the structures while navigating the streets using the mills as visual guides. The excursion led me out along Lake Erie where the recently added boardwalk allows anyone to walk along and enjoy views of the beach and our industrial heritage.
This location on the lake (photo) is just minutes from downtown Buffalo, and is such an incredible place to visit. While I was there, I ran into joggers, photographers, dog walkers, parents with strollers as well as sightseers driving by in cars and curiosity seekers approaching the mills. At one point I met a foreign couple who are currently attending UB. They were there taking photos of each other standing in front of the water's edge where one of the towering mills lay dormant. The two were fascinated with the sight of the structure and asked me if they could go inside. I told them that they could not legally enter, but that for the first time cities are looking to showcase the elevators by lighting them up, painting them, building parks around their perimeters, making climbing walls out of them, along with countless other ideas... many of which Westcoast has pointed out in a past slideshow.
Take a look at the slideshow and keep your eyes open for the couple as they are dwarfed by the grain mill. The two left that day keeping their minds open as to the possible re-use of the structures and told me that they would continue to pay visits to the incredible spectacles.
Make sure that you play Westcoast's previous slideshow and imagine the possibilities.