Eyesore or Monument? Preservationists Fight to Save a Grain Elevator in Buffalo

The current owner of the Great Northern has been pushing to demolish the building — possibly the last grain elevator of its type in the world.

BUFFALO — At first glance, the hulking brick building on the edge of Lake Erie looks like another decaying relic of Buffalo’s once-prosperous past, an image made all the worse by an enormous gash in its exterior, the victim of this city’s raking winter winds.

But to the trained and loving eye, the building — the Great Northern grain elevator — is a beauty, a testament to ingenious engineering and turn-of-the-century chutzpah, whose utility and aesthetic profoundly influenced generations of architects.

“These were the kind of cathedrals of the modern age,” said Gregory Delaney, a clinical assistant professor at the University at Buffalo’s architecture school, noting the elevator’s unique blend of function and technology. “It’s a building that is at the same scale as a great medieval cathedral, with a similar kind of monumental power.”