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Reconsidering Concrete Atlantis: Buffalo Grain Elevators Reconsidering Concrete Atlantis: Buffalo Grain Elevators Lynda H. Schneekloth, Editor ISBN: Copyright 2006 The Urban Design Project School of Architecture and Planning University at Buffalo, State University of New York Cover Graphic: Elevator Alley, Buffalo River (Photo by Lynda H. Schneekloth) Reconsidering Concrete Atlantis: Buffalo Grain Elevators Lynda H. Schneekloth, Editor The Urban Design Project School of Architecture and Planning University at Buffalo, State University of New York The Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier Buffalo, New York 2006 CREDITS The Grain Elevator Project was initiated in 2001 by the Urban Design Project, School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo, SUNY, in collaboration with the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier. It was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts through the Urban Design Project, and by the New York State Council on the Arts/Preservation League through the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier. The Project was managed by Lynda H. Schneekloth from the Urban Design Project, and Jessie Schnell and Thomas Yots of the Landmark Society. Members of the Advisory Committee included: Henry Baxter, Joan Bozer, Clinton Brown, Peter Cammarata, Frank Fantauzzi, Michael Frisch, Chris Gallant, Charles Hendler, David Granville, Arlette Klaric, Francis Kowsky, Richard Lippes, William Steiner, Robert Skerker, and Hadas Steiner. We would like to especially thank Claire Ross, Program Analyst from the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for her assistance. Thanks also to all of those who, through the years, have worked to protect and preserve the grain elevators, including Reyner Banham, Susan McCarthy, Tim Tielman, Lorraine Pierro, Jerry Malloy, Timothy Leary, and Elizabeth Sholes. Thanks to Laura Scarisbrick and Kathy Petrinec for the book design and layout, and Rachele Schneekloth for copy editing. This book is dedicated to the H-O Oats grain elevator and daylight factory. Your presence on the Buffalo skyline will be missed. Reconsidering Concrete Atlantis: Buffalo Grain Elevators CONTENTS Preface 9 Robert G. Shibley, University at Buffalo, SUNY Introduction 12 Lynda H. Schneekloth, University at Buffalo, SUNY Monuments of a Vanished Prosperity 18 Buffalo’s Grain Elevators and the Rise and Fall of the Great Transnational System of Grain Transport Francis R. Kowsky, Buffalo State College, SUNY The Grand Ladies of the Lake 45 Ivonne Jaeger, University at Buffalo, SUNY Projects and Proposals 65 The Grain Elevator Heritage Trail: Variations on a Theme 67 James Churchill, Sean Find, Michael Ross, Julia Kirton, Swapna Kulkarni, and Priyanka Gupta, Department of Architecture, University at Buffalo, SUNY The Digital Trace: Reconstructing, Forms and Migration 72 Joshua Price, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University Reforesting Buffalo’s Grain Elevator District 78 Catharine Callahan, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University Vertical Architecture: The Connecting Terminal 84 Mauro Cringoli and Rhona Vogt, Department of Architecture, University at Buffalo, SUNY A Proposal for the Concrete Central 90 Ivonne Jaeger, Department of Architecture, University at Buffalo, SUNY Child Street Music Center 96 Takushi Yoshida, School of Architecture, Columbia University Silo Dreams 102 The Grain Elevator and Modern Architecture Hadas Steiner, University at Buffalo/SUNY Challenging the Imagination 115 Adaptive Reuse of Grain Elevators Thomas Yots, City of Niagara Falls “Where’s the Fun in a Grain Elevator?” 123 Michael Frisch, University at Buffalo/SUNY Buffalo Grain Elevators Preface All of the themes are a blending of the reality of the border between the United States and Canada and a blurring of that border. Canadians investing in the Erie The binational Niagara region of Southern Canal and U.S. entrepreneurs investing Ontario, Canada and Western New York in in the Welland Canal tell a story of the United States is emerging as one large shared economic goals and international landscape park. Imagine an interpreted cooperation as well as competition. The landscape extending approximately forty story of grain in our region is not limited to miles north to south along the Niagara the ensemble of structures on the Buffalo River, and east to west from Hamilton, River but extends north to Niagara Falls Ontario to Lockport, New York. No official and west to the Niagara Peninsula in body has declared this area a “park,” there Ontario. are no rangers yet, no new maintenance crews are needed to mow the lawns, and The Urban Design Project in the School there is no superintendent. Even so, in the of Architecture and Planning at the popular imagination of the citizens of the University at Buffalo is on a mission to region, it is emerging as a beautiful and, interpret the regional landscape and frankly, powerful place of municipalities, give form and substance to the idea of a heritage trails, urban and state parks, binational regional identity. Toward this suburban and rural landscapes, a world end, we have published Rethinking the biosphere reserve, an Important Bird Niagara Frontier (2001) with the Waterfront Area, industrial, educational, and medical Regeneration Trust of Toronto, A Canal campuses, and cultural and tourism Conversation (2001) in collaboration with destinations. the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Achieving Niagara Falls’ Future (2001) This binational region is the site of an with the City of Niagara Falls, David Carter amazing collection of heritage and cultural International and Foit-Albert Associates, interpretation sites. Thematically, these and more recently the Queen City Hub: A sites are a part of the region’s role in Regional Action Plan for Downtown Buffalo “the wealth of nations” that establishes (2004) with the City of Buffalo and Buffalo the home for the story of Reconsidering Place Inc. In 2005 we helped produce Concrete Atlantis: Buffalo’s Grain Elevators. A Cultural Tourism Strategy: Enriching The grain story was one of many in “the Culture and Building Tourism in Buffalo wealth of nations,” including our history of Niagara, a report of the Buffalo Niagara steel-making, electric power generation, the Cultural Tourism Initiative working with the commerce enabled by the Erie and Welland University at Buffalo’s Institute for Local Canals, manufacturing Pierce Arrow Governance and Regional Growth. All of automobiles, and more. Related to this these publications and still more in process theme are four other ways of understanding affirm the regional base of our “place the conceptual park, including its “natural experience” here in the Niagaras. The landscape,” “enterprise and the arts,” “the collaborative base that constructed them bounty of nature,” and “war, peace and provides a mirror reflecting who we are and freedom.” Together these five themes how we choose to be. and the history they organize establish the context within which Buffalo’s grain industry The exploration of the history of Buffalo’s was born, flourished, and all but died. grain industry and elevators recorded in these pages is a collaboration between No one story is complete without the Landmark Society of the Niagara understanding its relationship to this Frontier and the Urban Design Project. broader context. Individually, the stories The effort has enjoyed support from the represent themes that portray the available National Endowment for the Arts through heritage and cultural resources, but braided a grant submitted by the Urban Design together in our region as a park, they Project. A second grant from the New York present a richer and deeper understanding State Council on the Arts to the Landmark of our place. Society provided for assembling the Rediscovering Concrete Atlantis Binational Niagara Region with grain elevator area indicated (Courtesy of Urban Design Project, University at Buffalo) historic documentation and successfully significant contribution to the interpretation nominating two specific elevators in the of the grain industry and elevators for Buffalo ensemble to the State and Federal local, regional, national, and international Register of Historic Places. audiences. It further demonstrates the historic connections of Buffalo and the This Urban Design Project and Landmark surrounding binational Niagara region to Society collaboration continued in the the world. evolution of a comprehensive plan for historic preservation in the City of Buffalo. This important planning initiative has been Robert G. Shibley, AIA, ACIP, is a Professor in the requested by the Mayor, managed by the School of Architecture and Planning and the Director Office of Strategic Planning and the Buffalo of the Urban Design Project at the University at Preservation Board, and engaged by a Buffalo, SUNY. He participated in this project both large cross section of community interests. in his position at the University, and also as past A significant part of the imagination president of the Landmark Society of the Niagara of our region is vested in more fully Frontier. understanding, interpreting, and protecting its stories and historic resources. August 2005 The story, however, is not just local or regional. Buffalo’s grain industry and elevators have played an important role in nation-building as the country found ways to feed the populations to the east from the bread baskets of the Midwest. Internationally, the elevators were an inspiration to modernist architects from all over the world, influencing functional expression in modern
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