Buffalo's Industrial Cathedrals

"...these sleeping giants are being re-awakened, not as off-limits industrial workhorses but places to eat, drink and play for a public eager to literally touch the city's past."

In Buffalo's 'industrial cathedrals,' once key to city's wealth, new hot spots for culture, play Carolyn Thompson of the Associated Press takes a look at the more than 30 concrete grain elevators built during the first half of the 20th century. They made Buffalo a critical trans-shipment center and helped generate the prosperity that allowed Buffalo's remarkable architectural treasures to be built and made it the eighth largest city in the U.S. with more millionaires per capita than any other city in the nation.

But the grain silos themselves are architectural treasures, the original skyscrapers, in fact. Thompson's article describes the rise of Rick Smith's Silo City as an event venue, the Labatt Blue-wrapped six pack of silos that anchor and announce the new RiverWorks, and the coming light show that will use the Connecting Terminal grain elevator as a year-round, ever-changing projection screen, perhaps as soon as next month.

Preservationist Tim Tielman compares the silos to "the Colosseum in Rome or ruins in Ireland, all 'achievements of great civilizations'." There are fewer and fewer calls for their demolition from old-timers who had seen them as reminders of "our failed present."

"You couldn't rebuild them, you wouldn't rebuild them," Rick Smith is quoted as saying. "They're our castles."

This well done article spread the good news about Buffalo's embrace of its silo legacy to many publications across the nation via the AP wire. It's time to get the word out -- and I can't wait to finally see some of these fabulous behemoths lit up!