The building’s current owner — Archer Daniels Midland Milling Co., part of the farm and food products giant — has been pushing to demolish the Great Northern, setting off a furious fight between preservationists and the company. — The New York Times
The 125-year-old building has been credited with inspiring a host of modernist architects like Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier. The building’s facade was gashed open by a windstorm that has left its empty interior partially exposed since December 12th. At least three previous owners have attempted to demolish the beloved historic building that was for a long time operated by the Pillsbury company, which sold the building to its current owners in the early 1990s.
Archer Daniels Midland Milling Co. has been seeking an emergency petition to raze the building that was granted a stay by an appellate judge in state supreme court earlier this month. The judge has called for mediation sessions this week between the company and conservationists who want to save the damaged structure that they say will leave a massive void on the city’s visual imagination.
“These were the kind of cathedrals of the modern age,” Gregory Delaney, an assistant professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo told the Times. “It’s a building that is at the same scale as a great medieval cathedral, with a similar kind of monumental power.”
“It has soul,” Washington, D.C. property developer Douglas Jemal, who attempted to purchase and restore the structure added. “A 125-year-old soul.”
2 Comments
I like it and would like to see it preserved, but how on earth could it be repurposed?
Hire HdM and find out ;-)
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