City Hall honored Archer Daniels-Midland’s long standing desire to wait for an excuse to demolish the Great Northern grain elevator by failing to inspect it for decades. It finally arrived when some bricks fell. But it was established by qualified experts that this did not present any real danger to the building or citizens alike, as it remains as solid and sturdy as City Hall.
What we have here is a demolition by conspiracy, between ADM, the city’s failure to understand the value of architectural preservation, former city Commissioner James Comerford and current Commissioner Catherine Amdur falling in line and issuing an unnecessary emergency demolition without even hearing alternative assessments by engineers, and a judge who obviously had his mind made up well before the first hearing of the case, as evidenced by his delay in dismissing the case until the day before demolition was scheduled to begin, thereby preventing any appeal to his myopic and (pre)judgment decision.
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The conspirators refused to even consider any alternative put forth to save the building that would have relieved them of financial or fiscal liabilities. The city too often acts more as adversary rather than advocate of architectural preservation. Now, Mayor Brown’s administration forever sadly joins the last great mistake in Buffalo’s architectural disaster; the demolition of the Larkin Administration Building. It may be too late to save the Great Northern, but this event should be thoroughly investigated and people held accountable so that it never happens again.
Joseph Donofrio, PhD
Buffalo