Originally storage was built from wood, but as you can imagine this caused many fire hazards(I actually have a video of the tour guide showing an example of how dust can cause an explosion/fire inside an elevator if you are interest). It was not until the 1920's that concrete was used though. The process to build these concrete silos was very interesting in itself. Storing the grain originally was done all by manual labor, but eventually thanks to the Buffalo River and the invention of the Marine Leg, boats were able to tie down and the grain would be transferred using conveyor belts.
The picture above is a "marine leg", some of them are actually on tracks. You can get a better look at the tracks in the second picture. These trcks allowed the marine legs to move once the silo is filled. The best part about this was that the boat would be tied down to the marine leg, making storage a much more streamlined process.
The storage silos actually used a very simple system to move the grain out from the silos once they were sold. They literally used gravity, and as you can see they would be pushed out on to conveyor belts so they could be sold. And if you were wondering how big the silos were, here is a better look from the inside!!!!
This one happens to be 120 feet high, and yes if you scream the echo lasts for quite some time!
There are a few things that I thought were interesting about the buildings themselves. We always assume that things are built for some aesthetic reason. That is not always the case though.....the land around Buffalo River was extremely valued, meaning it was expensive!!! So when you bought the land you wanted to use as much of it as you could. This one building at Silo City, which reminds me of the Flatiron Building in New York City is very aesthetically pleasing to me. However it was not built for that reason. In fact it was not even designed by some fancy architect....it was desgined by engineers! Most silos are in a stright line, however this one curves a little bit. The reason being that they wanted to use all of their land, so they built right up to their property line. Here is a look at the building!!!
I could go on and on about this place, and I highly recommend you take the tour if you get a chance. I will leave on one last note though....While only 3 elevators are in use today, Silo City is anything but dead. In fact the abandoned elevators are used for the Arts now!!!! Not to mention all the graffiti! But here are three examples of the art I saw in Silo City!
Your reflection on building structures for aesthetic reasons--or NOT--is food for thought. In some cases, the functionality of a building can create its own kind of aesthetic. We can respond to something that exudes utility or efficiency or economic power or industrial might--and find its associations lend it a kind of beauty. And then people try to imitate that brand of beauty. Several years ago, a bunch of German architects came to Buffalo to tour the grain elevators, and fell in love with their aesthetic. They were actually inspired to build structures--and I don't mean industrial ones--with a similar aesthetic. We can get that. The monumentality of ancient Egyptian pyramids may inspire monumental buildings that have nothing to with burial, right?
ReplyDeleteThe grain silos were an example of a utilitarian form of architecture- where the form followed the function. The circular tubes were more structurally stable, the slipform concrete allowed the stacking of these tubular pieces (creating those seams running up). Le Corbusier, a famous architect, took great inspirationf from Buffalo's grain Silos and they had their roots in early modernism of architecture.
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ReplyDeleteThe grain silos have been really prolific as of late in the art scene. 2 summers ago I went to one where all the silos at Silo City were converted into art installations, for the most part they were divided up as one installtion per silo. There was food trucks and everything. Before that there was apparently also a dj that played in there. But musicians and violinists have used the echo that the silos create for their performances. We did one project in freshman year of architecture to repurpose the. But it seems like there is outside interest to do the same thing. One person is looking to convert them into rock climbing. in other cities some have been drastically converted for housing-really cool.
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