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Video week: a tribute to Buffalo

Kaid Benfield

Posted July 18, 2011 at 1:23PM

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  downtown Buffalo (by: Scott Kinmartin, creative commons license)  residence in Buffalo (by: MH Baker, creative commons license)

I've been thinking about Buffalo, New York lately.  Part of it is that the National Trust is holding (and promoting the heck out of) their next annual preservation conference there.  And another part is that my friend Barbara Campagna, a preservationist and green architect of some significance, just set up shop there.  Barbara believes that "reusing what we have – buildings, landscapes, communities – is the best way to make the biggest impact in controlling climate change," and I couldn't agree more.  (BTW, go here for a nice personal essay about Barbara's evolution as an architect.)

Buffalo is a fine place to be thinking about such values - indeed, such imperatives - in part because of its extraordinary architectural legacy.  As regular readers know, few things tick me off as much as those who write off our older industrial cities as relics of the past, as if they had no future.  Nothing could be farther from the truth, and this wonderfully produced video explains why.  Enjoy and learn:

 

Every post this week will feature an educational and entertaining video.  Move your cursor over the photographs for credit information.