It’s always a bit sad when you have an image in your mind, cultivated over the years, of an iconic location and the reality turns out to be a little less than you expected. Niagara Falls to me is one of those places. I tried to block out the commercial side of the falls, that has no doubt always been there, and failed. The new high-rise hotels and casinos, the neon signs and the full-blown Vegas style amusement park on Falls Street, made it impossible to capture the feeling I was expecting. The falls are still magnificent as they have been for thousands of years. But a “Coney Island” theme park in the background….come on!

It’s symptomatic of the new commercial world I guess. Or maybe I’m naive expecting things to stay aesthetically pleasing. I just hope no one builds a casino at Yellowstone or Zion or any of the other “special places” in the U.S.

Casino Falls

Forget the falls. Lets build a very average fountain.

War Memorial. The soldier faces the Mall not the Falls.

Pass.

Enough Said

If you pick the angle and use trees to disguise the buildings, you can imagine the falls as they should be.

Better if you don’t turn around.