Woops. Ontario Specialty Contracting put a portion of the Agway/Cooperative Grange League Federation Elevator into the Buffalo River yesterday. Earlier this year, City Permit and Inspections Commissioner James Comerford approved an emergency demolition request from Ontario Specialty Contracting to demolish sections ‘B’ and ‘C’ of the GLF Elevator at 327 Ganson Street. Demolition work started in early summer. Company officials say the event was not unforeseen.
The Buffalo News has the story:
The demolition crew “must have miscalculated,” leading to the tower unintentionally collapsing into the river and causing city fire department crews to close a nearby bridge to traffic until the situation could be assessed, [Tim] Tielman [executive director of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo] said.
But Matthew J. Beck, an attorney for the demolition crew, said it was known ahead of time that the tower could fall into the river.
“Today’s events were not a collapse,” Beck said in a statement. “This was a controlled demolition process and the structure was purposefully taken down today as planned. There were no injuries, and the operation was successful. A small segment of a dilapidated tower did enter the water abutting the property and will be removed promptly as part of demolition operations.”
From the Buffalo History Works website:
This complex is a mix and match of irregular shapes and vernacular architecture which includes a combination of metal and concrete. The GLF was built for the Grange League Federation (GLF) and served as both an elevator and a feed mill. The function of the elevator being that it took in corn and other elements of the feed mix which in turn were milled into animal feed at the adjacent mill.
The GLF complex got its start in 1908 when the original elevator on the property, the Wheeler elevator, began operation as a typical transfer elevator. When Grange League Federation took over the property to erect their feed mill in late 1920’s, they built a small storage facility on the northwest end of the original Wheeler elevator. In 1941 GLF built a large railroad-based elevator to handle the huge increase of grain traffic that had developed in the late 30’s. This elevator has two very characteristic work houses that protrude at either end of the structure and was designed by A. E. Baxter. The Agway/GLF complex shut down in the mid-1970s.
No word from the Army Corps of Engineers about what they think of the Buffalo River splash down.
Entry image by photographer Aaron Ingrao -Copyright 2011 Aaron Ingrao. Not to be used without permission.