The structure’s enduring charisma today stems from its grotesquely utilitarian design which served for the function of elevating grain through 120-foot-tall silos. Lawrence Seaway’s easing of commercial transportation in and out of the United States in the middle of 20th century, however, ignited Buffalo’s, and Silo City’s, gradual fall. The construction of Silo City’s American Grain Elevator in 1906 was the first pouring of monolithic concrete in the country. The geographically advantageous location by Niagara Falls and the Erie Canal helped Buffalo become the first American city with widespread electricity-this prompted the construction of groundbreaking architecture. When Silo City was built in 1906 during Buffalo’s heyday as a grain port and flour milling hub of the American Malting Corporation, the city prospered to unparalleled wealth. Sitting on the edge of Lake Erie, the six-part campus of dwarfing concrete silos rise from the ground like towers of a dystopian landscape. “For my father’s generation, Silo City was a symbol of failure and bad decisions, but young people are in awe of its magnificence-their new eyes see its potential,” says Rick Smith, a Buffalo local who purchased the city’s iconic defunct grain elevator compound in 2006. for many, the poetic scattering of mammoth abandoned structures across vast urban landscapes translates to sculptural grandiosity and important glimpses into the past. Whether it be Detroit, Cleveland, or Buffalo, the relics of bygone prosperity and gilded hedonism have long charmed today’s architecture buffs. This week's reprint from Metropolis explores the ongoing renovation and transformation of an iconic site in Buffalo, Silo City, in order to create ambitious residential and public projects.Įnough time has passed to revisit the infrastructure of the American Rust Belt.
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