Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The fate of the Great Northern grain elevator is now in the hands of the courts.
Starting Monday morning, the Campaign for Greater Buffalo will plead their case in front of Justice Emilio Colaiacovo to try and save the historic grain elevator from demolition at the hands of the building's owner, ADM Milling Co., which is based out of Chicago, Illinois.
"We're going to go to court, and our first order of the day is to make sure we get a preliminary injunction against demolition for as long as the court case takes," said Director of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo, Tim Tielman. "That would be between the time it's argued on Monday morning until the judge makes a decision so we don't have to keep on extending the [temporary restraining order]. It's just in abeyance until the judge makes a decision. Certainly we would hope the judge would find in our favor."
It was back on Saturday, Dec. 11 when the 1897 Great Northern grain elevator suffered significant structural damage to its northern wall during a wind storm with wind gusts over 70 miles-per-hour. Less than a week later, the City of Buffalo granted ADM Milling Co. a permit for emergency demolition of the structure.
It was on Sunday, Dec. 19 when a State Supreme Court judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent any demolition activities to the building in Buffalo's "Old First Ward".
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Tielman feels that it is unnecessary for ADM to demolish the Great Northern in order to accomplish the goals of protecting the public. The Campaign for Greater Buffalo's plan will be to argue that the public can be protected, while the property can also be protected short of an emergency demolition.
"At this moment, the city and ADM say we can mitigate the hazard by simply destroying the building," Tielman said. "It's a very valuable building in Buffalo, a city landmark, and what's more emblematic of us here in Buffalo than a grain elevator?"
"Buffalo has established a reputation as doing historic preservation better than any other city in the country," said Congressman Brian Higgins on Thursday during an event at the Tifft Nature Preserve. "The reason we do that is because all the great architects - Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Richard Upjohn, Louise [Blanchard] Bethune (the first female architect in America), Frank Lloyd Wright - they weren't from Buffalo, they came to Buffalo. We have an appreciation for the importance of historic preservation. You have developers stepping up, you have not-for-profits stepping up, you have the political community stepping up. If one community can save a historic building like that, it's Buffalo."
While the Campaign for Greater Buffalo will fight to preserve the Great Northern and avoid any sort of demolition, Higgins believes that if the building is saved, it should be up to the parent company to make the proper renovations to the historic structure.
"They wanted to demolish it in 1996, and again in 2003. They've been negligent, and not securing that building because they were hoping for something that occurred a couple of weeks ago. That was a major windstorm," Higgins said. "Everybody is concerned with public safety, and we'll continue to be concerned about public safety. But they shouldn't get an out. They left that vacant, it's their responsibility, and they should be responsible for the restoration of that historic building."
Tielman also believes that if the demolition order is overruled in the courts, there is plenty of time for ADM to repair the grain elevator.
"ADM itself, the owner, has admitted to gross violations of the building code, which ADM, itself, claims are life-threatening," Tielman said. "So we're trying to say, 'Yeah, there is an alternative to demolition, and it's repair and restoration.'
"I don't think anyone in the community - maybe short of ADM, which is headquartered in Chicago - wants this Buffalo landmark to come down. So the whole community is really rallying around, which is wonderful to see. We hope that the judge is convinced of that as well."
In the days since the grain elevator was damaged and news of demolition efforts by ADM were starting to circulate, a number of people have stepped forward to show their support for saving the building. Names like Douglas Jemal and Rocco Termini have expressed their support in preserving the building, with Jemal going as far as saying he'd be interesting in purchasing the structure from ADM if they were interested in selling.
Tielman says its fantastic to see developers like Jemal and Termini - who have a long history of restoration efforts in Buffalo - lining up with the Campaign for Greater Buffalo's efforts with trying to preserve a key piece of the city's history.
"They recognize and have a great track record, not only liking and wanting to preserve historic structures and places but recognizing the economic advantage, the economic leverages that attaching yourself to something authentic to a given place has. It creates a definite value that can't be replicated," Tielman said. "The other buildings that Douglas Development has acquired and is renovating, just lately, a small but very evocative complex that houses Simon Electric on Ellicott Street. That's exciting. Rocco Termini - you go up-and-down Chandler Street - he's taken over century-old factories and repurposed them into really evocative, cool office space, commercial space, restaurant space. That can be replicated in spades here on the city's ship canal."
"He's like the architects of the late 19th century and early 20th century - he wasn't from here, but when he got here he fell in love with the place," Higgins said of Jemal. "He's taken on some very challenging re-development of buildings, and has been highly, highly successful. I don't see him very often asking for a handout. So a guy like him has 'street cred', in terms of he restoration of a building, and he should be listened to. And I think his statement about wanting to buy it and save it is a big statement about viability.
"I think Doug Jemal, along with other folks that have weighed in here, non-for-profits, there's a consistent vision here about trying to save what is unique to Buffalo."
So what plans could be in the books for the Great Northern grain elevator if the demolition ruling is overruled and the building is saved?
Higgins looked at what folks are doing in Toledo with their left over grain elevators, using the exteriors of those buildings for stuff like public art. The Congressman believes that should be in the cards in Buffalo, and went as far as to say it's in the plans to do a "demonstration project" with, at least, one of the grain elevators in the city.
"It's part of our history. It's what makes the Buffalo waterfront so unique," Higgins said. "We're seeing there that they're looking at adaptive re-uses for residential and commercial mixed uses. You go all over Europe, this is the kind of things they do. They take these historic, and in some cases prehistoric structures, and they turn them into something that distinguishes those European cities."
Meanwhile, Tielman and the Campaign for Greater Buffalo is already thinking of a bigger picture if they can manage to successfully preserve the Great Northern grain elevator.
"If people can imagine this, one of the first things we'd do after securing the structure and replacing the rusted metal [to make it] look brand-spankin' new would be to emblazon that four-story cupola that's 400 feet long with a giant sign proclaiming 'Buffalo' so people know where they're at," Tielman said. "We can renovate the ground floor - that's one acre of space with 400 feet of wharfage on the city's ship canal - and then there is, just buried on the north side, and old barge slip. So we'd like to renovate both, as well as a 400-foot long porch on Ganson Street. You're talking about over 1,000 feet of wharf and porch, and you can just imaging the number of small businesses, the number of office space, the number of retail spaces - whether year-long or temporary - that can be accommodated by that.
"Everyone loves this building. The scale of it, the monumentality; you really have to get out there and see it to believe it. And now, hopefully if things work as the entire community is hopeful for, ADM gives it up and someone restores it, you'll be able to go inside and it is mind-blowing on the interior."
Before any further plans can take off successfully, the first order of business for Tielman and the Campaign for Greater Buffalo is to find a way to overrule the emergency demolition order.
While the City of Buffalo granted ADM the permit for emergency demolition, Mayor Byron Brown did send a letter to the company's Chief Executive Officer, Juan Luciano. In the letter, Mayor Brown asked the company to make every effort to try and preserve the Great Northern grain elevator.
As Tielman and his group get set to fight for the future of the Great Northern grain elevator, he has been overjoyed with the public interest and support with preserving the structure.
"We're confident that the city will either, on its own, and we've urged Mayor Brown to simply withdraw the emergency demo and make ADM do those repairs," Tielman said. "Or ADM just says, 'You know what, we're not interested in repairing this building. Let's find a buyer.' And apparently, willing buyers would be lining up here. That's the outcome we hope to have happen."