Iluminarc Helps Transform Buffalo's Canalside Grain ElevatorsIn 1807, New York Governor DeWitt Clinton proposed an audacious plan: to build a 363 mile (584km) canal that connected New York City's Atlantic port to America's burgeoning Great Lakes. Despite a chorus of initial skepticism (President Thomas Jefferson dismissed the idea as "a little short of madness"), Clinton's vision became reality 18 years later with the opening of the Erie Canal that ran from Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany on the Hudson. The canal turned New York City into a great metropolis and transformed Buffalo into a center of commodities trading, as evidenced by the proliferation of grain elevators that lined its canal side. Although Buffalo's grain trading days have long since receded into history, one remnant of its past, the Connecting Terminal Grain Elevator, has taken on new life as a popular attraction, thanks to an ever-changing light show that draws on the color mixing prowess of the Ilumipod 54g2 IP from Chauvet's Iluminarc division. Described by The Buffalo News as a "kaleidoscope of illuminated colors and patterns," the 40-minute light show, which was designed by Ambient Design Production, runs daily from dusk to 11:00pm. An impressive collection of fixtures was used to turn the four-football-field long and 100' high grain elevator into a majestic light sculpture. Among them are 10 moving fixtures used to project patterns on the façade of the structure, low-res pixel strips positioned behind each silo, and 197 RGBW Ilumipod 54g2 IP fixtures positioned on the top and bottom of each silo. "The Ilumipods were chosen for their light output, which was essential to covering this massive structure, and for their rugged construction, which was essential to standing up to the weather in Buffalo," said Steve Danzig of Lightspec in Rochester, New York, which provided the fixtures for the architectural light show. "The fixtures do an excellent job washing the building with deeply rich colors." Danzig credits Frey Electric of Tonawanda, New York, which installed the Iluminarc fixtures with playing a key role in the project's success. "Frey Electric deserves a lot of credit for the diligence they showed throughout the installation process," he said. Like all impressive projects, the transformation of the idle Connecting Terminal Grain Elevator into an aesthetically memorable attraction was not without its trials and tribulations. "The sheer size of the job and physically getting to the mounting locations were major challenges," said Danzig. "It was a great team effort. We worked hand in hand with Frey Electric, Inc. out of Buffalo during the installation; without them this would not have happened for us." In the end, though, it did happen, and a piece of Buffalo's past as the largest grain terminal in the world was preserved as an architectural gem that can be enjoyed by the entire community. This achievement may not rank with the colossus Erie Canal project in terms of its scope, but it shows what can be done when determined people turn vision into reality. 
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